Day 208 - 24 Jan 96 - Page 04
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What you should not do is assume that because
2 someone has written (whether it is someone in McDonald's or
3 anywhere else) that the law is X, that I am going to accept
4 that it is X.
5
6 MR. MORRIS: All I am saying is that ---
7
8 MR. JUSTICE BELL: People get things wrong.
9
10 MR. MORRIS: -- if we do not find out any statute on the
11 subject, we are going to assume that the law is as
12 McDonald's were advising their Supervisors.
13
14 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You can assume what you like.
15
16 MR. MORRIS: If Mr. Rampton wants to challenge that at the end
17 of the case, then that is up to him.
18
19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You assume what you like. If the assumption
20 turns out to be false, there we are.
21
22 MR. MORRIS: Right.
23
24 MR. JUSTICE BELL: The one thing about statutory law is that
25 difficulties of interpretation arise from time to time, but
26 with regard to things like hours and breaks and so on,
27 I would expect it all to be clearly laid out probably in
28 regulations under some statutory provision. It is not like
29 quoting case authority with arguments one way or the other.
30
31 MS. STEEL: If the Plaintiffs have got the law, then it would be
32 helpful if they say what it is. If they want to say they
33 have not got it, then let them say that. If they have got
34 it and they do not want to show it to us, then, yes, we
35 only assume that it is because it is in our favour.
36 I think that, seeing as we have to be in court every day
37 and we do not have the opportunity to look this up, and it
38 is relevant to put it to the current witnesses in the
39 witness box, that there should be an adjournment so that we
40 have got the time to go and look up the law, because the
41 Plaintiffs have got other people at their disposal to ask
42 to do this work for them, whereas we have not.
43
44 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I am afraid I do not accept that. Mr. Morris
45 from time to time has stated to the witness that the law is
46 this or the law is that, and I have assumed he has known
47 what it is.
48
49 MS. STEEL: It is because of the document, McDonald's own
50 document, yesterday.
51
52 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I do not know that. From time to time
53 Mr. Morris has declared that he has had an interest in
54 union matters and so on; and, for all I know, he knows all
55 these regulations and recites them to himself before he
56 goes to bed every night. I just do not know.
57
58 MS. STEEL: Certainly, yesterday we were referring to
59 McDonald's own document. We do not know what the law is in
60 this area, other than what it says in this McDonald's