Day 120 - 03 May 95 - Page 37
1
2 Q. Why were you not able to bring the key witnesss to those
3 court cases?
4 A. I have no idea, the only person who would know
5 that -----
6
7 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just pause. Do you know whether any
8 McDonald's company paid any part in either of those suits?
9 A. No part at all; it was down to Pantry Franchises.
10
11 MR. MORRIS: It seems the Plaintiffs have a problem with this,
12 their franchisees are part of McDonald's family, McDonald's
13 system, whatever they call it, and throughout this case
14 they continuously refer to them as "McDonald's". When
15 something happens they do not like, they try to wheedle out
16 of it by claiming that somehow -----
17 A. That is nonsense.
18
19 MR. RAMPTON: I am sorry, my Lord, that is not what your
20 Lordship's question was; it is not what the answer was. The
21 question was whether Mr. McDonald's, the Company, played
22 any part in this, and the answer was no, no part. That is
23 not the same thing as showing a lack of interest or
24 concern. They are completely different.
25
26 MR. MORRIS: It is not completely different. The McDonald's
27 company concerns Pantry Franchise -----
28
29 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just pause there, because I have to say it
30 does not further the matter to say it is a McDonald's
31 company. I do not even know whether McDonald's held one
32 share in this company. For all I know it did not have any
33 share in the Company. It might turn out that it owned
34 70 per cent of the company. I just have no information
35 about that at all. The fact that it operates a McDonald's
36 store with an "M" on it, just as I assume lots of
37 well-known car rental firms you see around the country have
38 well-known brands names on them, does not define whether
39 the owner of the brand name has control over this aspect of
40 the franchisee's, or licensee's business, or not. It is
41 not being pernickety; it may be a matter of importance.
42 You may discover that McDonald's had an element of control,
43 maybe a large element of control over Pantry Franchise
44 Ireland Limited, but it is not an answer to the matter to
45 say they were running a restaurant with a golden arches "M"
46 on it. You have to grapple with it, you know.
47
48 MR. MORRIS: At the beginning of the case, as far as I remember,
49 Paul Preston was asked how many stores McDonald's had
50 world-wide or something, and they produced some piece of
51 paper, you will remember, that was virtually unreadable,
52 about all their stores, and it was something like 14,600,
53 or something. Those are the stores which Paul Preston
54 identified as being the ones that we are concerned about in
55 this case. They cannot pick or choose which particular
56 issue that are McDonald's stores, and not McDonald's
57 stores. All the stores that say McDonald's that are part
58 of the McDonald's system, McDonald's family, as far as we
59 are concerned, are the stores we are concerned with in this
60 case. Otherwise why do not they say: "Oh, Ireland. That
