Day 166 - 28 Sep 95 - Page 02
1 Thursday, 28th September 1995.
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do not worry. In fact, the reason I came in
4 is merely to decide what to do if you had been held up for
5 some reason. So, just get your breath back and we will go
6 on.
7
8 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, Mr. Atkinson, James, is here. We have
9 agreed that, if your Lordship will permit it, Mr. Atkinson,
10 Timothy, will examine him.
11
12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
13
14 JAMES PETER ATKINSON, sworn.
15
16 MR. ATKINSON: My Lord, sorry. Before I start asking
17 Mr. Atkinson some questions, some documents were brought by
18 Mr. Atkinson yesterday evening to us. They are very slim.
19 I will explain to your Lordship what they are and why they
20 have only come at this late stage. (Handed)
21
22 First of all, the first -- that should be two sheets, they
23 are two separate documents -- is two sheets called Budget
24 Report dated 22nd December 1986. That is the projected
25 budget for the year 1987 at the Marble Arch store. It is
26 not the complete Budget Report. We blanked out anything
27 that was irrelevant. What we have kept in are the net
28 sales and the payroll crew costs. That is relevant to the
29 question of labour costs.
30
31 I will tell your Lordship just in a second why they have
32 only come now. The other document is the McDonald's Marble
33 Arch store Profit and Loss Statement for the period October
34 1986 to April 1987. That covers the period when
35 Mr. Magill, the Defendants' witness, was at the store.
36 Again, that gives the net sales figures -- these are actual
37 figures -- and the payroll crew costs again relevant to the
38 labour costs issue. But we have blanked out other matters
39 which obviously contain sensitive financial information and
40 which we do not believe to be relevant to the issues in the
41 action.
42
43 The reason, my Lord, that this has only come to light now
44 is, I hope your Lordship will accept, not a sinister one.
45 The reason is that, apparently, back in April or May when
46 Mr. Atkinson first thought he was going to be giving
47 evidence, he had had a clear out recently of his garage at
48 home and he did not believe that he had them at his home.
49 He could not find these documents at his home, so what he
50 did was he then phoned up or contacted McDonald's to ask
51 them whether they had them.
52
53 They had a look for them, apparently, and said that they
54 would not have such documents for so long a period ago. He
55 then thought, well, he would have another look. This was
56 in about June, apparently. He had another look through his
57 house and he did find these documents in June.
58
59 We have not had them before last night, but I do not
60 believe that they have been held back for any sinister
