Day 126 - 17 May 95 - Page 04

     
     1        McDonald's will, if necessary, pay for a qualified child
     2        minder to look after Charlie Morris until he is on the mend
     3        and able to go back to school.
     4
     5        How long that will take to arrange -- obviously, it would
     6        have to be done with the agreement and co-operation of
     7        Mr. Morris.  It would have to be somebody who Mr. Morris
     8        found acceptable; maybe it is best if he were left to find
     9        such a person himself.  McDonald's would co-operate in that
    10        exercise, if he wished it.  They would meet the expense.
    11        The expense, obviously, would be worked out. These
    12        professional child minders have agreed rates and that would
    13        be agreed in advance, probably on a weekly basis or a daily
    14        basis, I should imagine.
    15
    16   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  There is a possible solution.  Let me just
    17        think aloud on some other points because I have, obviously,
    18        given some thought as to the way through the problem as
    19        I had imagined it to be.  Is there any other matter of fact
    20        you want to raise -- you may want to argue about anything
         I say in thinking aloud to you -- are there other factors
    22        you want to let me know about?
    23
    24   MS. STEEL:   I do not think so.  I mean, obviously, I would
    25        imagine that, provided it was up to Mr. Morris to find a
    26        child minder, that would be acceptable to him, although
    27        I would think that probably certainly for this week, and I
    28        do not know about next week, because his son is still quite
    29        upset, I do not know what the position is.
    30
    31   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Let us just take it stage by stage for the
    32        moment.  I would hope that Mr. Morris would co-operate with
    33        that suggestion.  To be realistic, if he did not, he would
    34        be putting himself in a difficult position, so far as the
    35        court is concerned, because I would think that he was not
    36        co-operating.  But I am certainly not going to even
    37        consider that conclusion at the moment because I hope very
    38        much he would take advantage of it.  I have no reason to
    39        suppose that he would not take advantage of it. ;
    40
    MS. STEEL:  No.
    42
    43   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The other matter I would like you to think
    44        about is this:  The case has been running for some months
    45        now.  You and Mr. Morris have become pretty well acquainted
    46        with our procedure and, if I may say so, you have become
    47        pretty practised at cross-examining witnesses.  You have a
    48        common cause.  I can see when we come to publication you
    49        have your separate cases in relation to that, but on every
    50        other aspect, and certainly with regard to the witnesses 
    51        who are coming up over the next few weeks, you have a 
    52        common cause. 
    53
    54        They are Plaintiffs' witnesses only who are coming up in
    55        the foreseeable future, following the pattern which we have
    56        followed, of trying to deal with topics separately; hearing
    57        the Plaintiffs' witnesses first, by and large, and then
    58        yours, so we have the Plaintiffs' witnesses who you have to
    59        cross-examine or you have worked in harness in
    60        cross-examination so far to the extent of sometimes asking