Day 194 - 01 Dec 95 - Page 20
1 effect, a request for further and better particulars as
2 soon as possible, so as to avoid Mr. Coton having to come
3 to court, as it were, twice. On 9th November, we served
4 that request, saying to Mr. Morris and Ms. Steel: "Please
5 let us have the answers by 22nd November at the latest" --
6 which is a fortnight before Mr. Coton was scheduled to give
7 evidence -- "so as to give us time to prepare for his
8 cross-examination."
9
10 The answers to the questionnaires are finally given to us
11 in the form of notes taken by Mr. Morris on Tuesday of this
12 week. What they show -- I do not know whether
13 your Lordship has been given a copy?
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. I have read them.
16
17 MR. RAMPTON: What I feel safe in saying is that they show that
18 what Mr. Coton is principally talking about is the time
19 when he was Manager.
20
21 It may help your Lordship if I give a bit of a chronology.
22 Mr. Davis was the Manager from, I think, 1984 until
23 1st August 1987. I ask your Lordship to note in passing
24 that the Defendants' witness Mr. Gibney left Colchester and
25 went to Milton Keynes in November 1987; and also to notice
26 in passing that Mr. Stanton left the area completely at the
27 beginning of March 1986.
28
29 Mr. Coton became Manager of the Colchester store on
30 1st August 1987, the same day that Mr. Mark Davis left as
31 Manager and became Area Supervisor. Mr. Coton was Manager
32 from 1st August 1986.
33
34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just pause a moment.
35
36 MR. RAMPTON: Sorry. (Pause) Mr. Coton was Manager from
37 1st August 1987 until 29th August 1991, not 1990, as he
38 says in his statement. We have checked that. That is one
39 of the things we have been doing since we got Mr. Morris'
40 further and better particulars on Tuesday. During that
41 time, Mr. Davis was his Supervisor until, I think,
42 February 1991. For the last few months of Mr. Coton's
43 managership, his Supervisor was somebody else.
44
45 What we have done in the time we have had available to us,
46 the last three days, is to find as much information as we
47 can in relation to the further and better particulars, that
48 is to say, the allegations made by Mr. Coton to the effect
49 that he was persuaded, when he was Manager, that certain
50 things needed doing in order to meet targets.
51
52 We have disclosed now for that reason, when we got the
53 particulars, the recent discovery is, in effect,
54 Mr. Coton's personnel file, a large amount of which
55 consists of performance reviews carried out in relation to
56 him by Mr. Davis and others.
57
58 My Lord, I say in passing none of this affects Mr. Alimi at
59 all, who had left at the end of August 1987. I am
60 concerned with a period from 1st August 1987 through to
