Day 101 - 10 Mar 95 - Page 23
1
2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Right. The lesson to be learnt is this, in
3 fact, as soon as you got hold of it, it is disclosable.
4 Although it may seem sense to you to pursue the matter
5 before you decide whether to use it and/or disclose it, the
6 question of disclosure comes first of all.
7
8 So, if documents come into your possession or custody --
9 I say "or custody" because you may well be shown them by
10 someone else whose documents they are who has lent them to
11 you just so that you can have a look at them for
12 information -- if they are relevant to an issue in the
13 case, they are disclosable at least as an item on a list.
14
15 If there is then in any argument about whether you should
16 produce copies or not, that can be gone into, but the
17 existence of them must be disclosed. In most instances in
18 this case, that will involve, avoiding any argument about
19 whether they should be produced or not or the facility of
20 inspection should be given, merely by producing photocopies
21 and being done with it, which is what has happened
22 virtually all the time.
23
24 It does not matter, in other words and put rather more
25 shortly, whether you propose to use it or are undecided
26 whether to use it in the end. If it is in your possession,
27 custody or power and it is relevant, it should be
28 discovered at least to the extent that those who represent
29 McDonald's are told you have got it.
30
31 There you are. Do not say any more now. Bear that in mind
32 in the future.
33
34 MS. STEEL (To the witness): Mr. Kenny, you said you looked into
35 the pleading about the Isle of Wight ---
36 A. Yes.
37
38 Q. -- and that you had not been able to find anything. So,
39 there was nothing remotely connected to that on your
40 records?
41 A. There were no records of it at all in my department
42 files, none at all.
43
44 Q. Would your department keep records that long or was that
45 because it would go to -- it is from the Customer Services
46 Department.
47 A. This letter comes from a different department.
48
49 Q. So it is possible that they might have a record of it?
50 A. If they have their records back to 1989 then they
51 should have a copy of a letter they sent out.
52
53 Q. When it is switched over to being your responsibility, your
54 department's responsibility, to look into incidents,
55 complaints, about food poisoning, you did not take over all
56 their paper work and look through that to, you know, look
57 for common threads or anything like that?
58 A. Even in those days, and this was before I joined the
59 company, but in those days if our department were contacted
60 about such an event they would have been involved in the
