Day 139 - 21 Jun 95 - Page 10
1 I am reading this thing, and it is talking about financial
2 information; it has nothing to do with Human Resources
3 information. They are not obligated -- and maybe this will
4 help push this along -- they are not obligated to keep any
5 Human Resource information for me to see.
6
7 Q. Of course, it is hard to judge some of the things, because
8 so much of this document has been blanked out.
9
10 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What you have now is Mr. Stein, who is,
11 effectively, Head of Human Resources, which covers
12 employment problems. This is the third time I have
13 suggested this morning that if you have some matter which
14 you think McDonald's Corporation could stamp on, if it
15 wanted to, if its licensee did it, then I think you must
16 put that to Mr. Stein. Mr. Stein is quite right that, if
17 we are just looking at the wording of the franchise
18 agreement, that is a matter of legal interpretation; and
19 whatever the witness's expertise in the field -- and
20 Mr. Stein has candidly said he does not purport to have
21 expertise in the field, although he is a qualified
22 lawyer -- ultimately, it is a matter of law to decide.
23
24 What I think you are getting at is, quite apart from what
25 is in the franchise agreement, McDonald's Corporation's
26 muscle is such that if it said "jump on a thing", it would
27 be commercial suicide for the franchisee not to jump. Now,
28 if that is what you are putting, quite frankly, you must
29 give an example, because my guess is that anyone in
30 commerce would find one situation different from another.
31 So you must give an example.
32
33 One of the reasons I say that -- I am just looking at
34 Mr. Chester's statement -- you might put, if you chose the
35 kind of questions you are raising with Mr. Stein, in
36 relation to use of particular kind of supplies like food
37 paper and packaging used in McDonald's restaurants
38 worldwide, and what would happen if a franchisee somewhere
39 or other started using a different kind of packaging or
40 another source of food that was provided for. But, for
41 instance, that, I would think, came within Mr. Chester's
42 field. Mr. Stein -- if he will excuse me describing him as
43 such -- is the employment man. So it is a particular
44 point, a particular point in relation to employment, that
45 you ought to be putting to Mr. Stein.
46
47 One way of approaching it would be, when you come to
48 particular instances in a particular country, then you can
49 say to Mr. Stein at some stage in your cross-examination on
50 that: "I suggest that if you had wanted to, you, as the
51 embodiment of McDonald's Corporation, could have insisted
52 that this be done." Then we will hear Mr. Stein's answer.
53 Do you see?
54
55 MR. MORRIS: (To the witness) I think you have already given
56 examples, have you not, Mr. Stein? In Puerto Rico, you
57 made conditions for the continuing support of McDonald's
58 Corporation, which you withdrew, because you say it was
59 because the owner did not live in Puerto Rico; do you
60 remember?
