Case No. HT-11-503

219.The catering trade is notorious for its high turnover of staff. Of course, the delay in opening may have meant that there was a greater turnover than would otherwise have been expected, because some members of staff were apparently let go until the works were reopened. But the changes in personnel could only justify the assertion that the profit figures in October were not those that would have been generated in March if there was some evidence that the staff engaged at the time of the second inundation were of a palpably higher quality than the staff who were available in October 2007, and that this drop in staff quality affected the profits. There was no credible evidence to that effect.220.Such an exercise would have involved a comparison between the two sets of staff. There was no evidence that could have allowed such a comparison; indeed there was no evidence at all about the post-October staff.221.As to the first set of staff, there was one person (Mr Stuart Tattersall) to whom Mr Barber made particular reference in his witness statement. He said that Mr Tattersall had to be let go early in 2007 and was not available in October because he had moved on to better things. The suggestion was that The Oak was a poorer place without him. But in keeping with the rest of the Brit Inns claim, there were grave doubts as to whether the factual basis for such a claim could be supported.222.The payroll information provided by Brit Inns on disclosure did not include any mention of Mr Tattersall’s name between September 2006 and February 2007. Only a subsequent payroll document, which was not provided until Mr Barber’s third witness statement shortly before the trial, contained any reference to him. This blatant discrepancy has never been explained. I have no reason to disbelieve the accuracy of the document originally provided on disclosure. In addition, no contract between Brit Inns and Mr Tattersall – indeed no documents evidencing his employment by Brit Inns at all – has ever been disclosed. There is no Income Tax and no National Insurance documentation in connection with him. Furthermore, given that it was only Mr Barber who was saying that he had employed Mr Tattersall, my concerns about his credibility are again relevant.223.Thus I conclude that it has not been established on the balance of probabilities that Mr Tattersall was on the payroll at the time of the second inundation. Further and in any event, it appears that Mr Tattersall has gone on to be a chef at a well-known restaurant in central London. There is nothing to say that, even if he had been employed by Brit Inns in late 2006 or early 2007, this change would not have happened in any event by October 2007. There was therefore nothing to say that this alleged change was the result of the second inundation, or that it had any effect on profitability. 224.Although in his oral evidence, Mr Barber made much of the assistance in staff matters provided by Mr Renzland, it was difficult to see where that took him. Mr Renzland did not give evidence, and there was no claim relating to his involvement. It appears that Mr Renzland had his own restaurant elsewhere and the precise nature of his involvement in The Oak was unclear. 225.In essence, as was put to Mr Barber during his cross-examination, there is no guarantee in staff loyalty in the catering trade, a point he fairly accepted. Although he said that it was a generalisation to say that the staff he employed in March 2007 were just as likely to leave then as in October, it seems to me that that was the only logical conclusion to draw.226.It must be remembered that, for this purpose, the defendants were not suggesting that staff turnover did not occur; their point was simply that staff turnover was not a reason to ignore the actual profit figures generated from October 2007 onwards. For the reasons that I have given, I accept that submission.