Day 168 - 03 Oct 95 - Page 15

     
     1        A.  That is right.  Phil was the Store Manager at the time.
     2
     3   MS. STEEL:   It was Mr. Cummings who carried out the
     4        investigation?
     5        A.  It was him who carried out the investigation into his
     6        complaint, yes.
     7
     8   Q.   Right.
     9
    10   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Do not forget that in the circumstances we
    11        have here the fact of a complaint is of no evidential value
    12        to me.
    13
    14   MR. MORRIS:  No, but there is the fact of making the complaint.
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Evidence that the complaint is true -- no,
    17        that is of no evidential value to me.  Evidence that the
    18        complaint is well-founded, yes.
    19
    20   MR. MORRIS:  Yes, I understand that, but the fact is that a
         complaint is made, is evidence, and the actual substance of
    22        the complaint is another matter.
    23
    24   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  But evidence that a complaint is made is not
    25        going to help me in this sphere of the case.  It can be
    26        made with or without justification.
    27
    28   MR. MORRIS:  Yes, maybe we will call Danny Olive, I do not know.
    29
    30   MS. STEEL:  It may be relevant when we got the document from
    31        Mr. Olive.
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  It may be, but I do not want you to be
    34        labouring under what may be a misapprehension.
    35
    36   MR. MORRIS:  No, I understand that.  We may have to call him to
    37        verify -----
    38
    39   MR. RAMPTON:  My Lord, I was going to intervene just when your
    40        Lordship did that.  I was apprehensive in case Mr. Morris
         (which, plainly, he was) under a misapprehension that it
    42        was a valuable use of your Lordship's time to go through
    43        each of these names and just asking really was there a
    44        complaint and so on and so forth.  What matters is whether,
    45        as your Lordship says, it is true or not.
    46
    47   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes.  The only possible justification for
    48        that would be to see if it might be worthwhile chasing up
    49        that witness.  If you do it to take that for that purpose,
    50        you must do it very shortly because the answer to that is 
    51        "yes" or "no", you know whether it might be possible to 
    52        chase that potential witness, and any further questions, 
    53        unless the witness agrees that the complaint was justified,
    54        is not valuable use of our time.
    55
    56   MR. MORRIS:  Right.  WE are not going to embark on that
    57        until  -----
    58   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You carry on.  I intervened, not just because
    59        I was concerned about productive use of time but because
    60        I did not want you to be under what I considered to be a