Statement served 6th March 1990 (just a few days before the trial - contradicting her previous affidavit and revealing that, after all, she did not take the minutes of the Delegates' meetings in 1985. - A. M.)
1. My name is Jean Margaret Goodall. I am employed by Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP. My current position is Secretary to the Secretary to the Delegates and Chief Executive of Oxford University Press. I have held this position since 1967.
2. Since 1989, the Delegates of Oxford University Press have held fourteen Meetings each year. Before 1989, they held thirteen Meetings each year. Delegates' Meetings are held on Tuesday, every two weeks during the University terms. During the long academic vacation (ie July to September) two Meetings are held. Before 1989, only one Meeting was held each year in that period and in 1985 I can confirm that the Delegates' Meeting took place on 23 July.
3. I am responsible for collating the Agenda papers which go before the Delegates at each Delegates' Meeting and for typing the Minutes of each Delegates' Meeting. The procedure for collating the papers and typing the Minutes has changed since 1985. The current procedure is as follows:
4. Eleven days before each Meeting, Editors at Oxford University Press send a list of titles which they propose to put before the Delegates for their approval. From these lists I compile a draft Agenda eight days before the Delegates' Meeting. Each proposed title is listed. This draft Agenda is then circulated to each of the Editors, partly to checkthe accuracy of the information contained in it and partly for the Editors to consider whether or not each book they proposed is actually ready to go before the Delegates.
5. The draft Agendas (with any alterations) are returned to me six days before the Delegates' Meeting. From these, I compile a final version of the Agenda and throw all of the draft Agendas and lists of titles away.
6. I usually receive Delegates' Notes relating to the titles on the Agenda by 4.00 pm on the Wednesday before the Delegates' Meeting. I then make up the bundle of papers which are to be put before the Delegates at their next Meeting. This bundle includes the final Agenda, the Delegates' Notes and other papers (eg financial reports). I usually make twenty five copies of this bundle, one for each of the nineteen Delegates and six others for various people within Oxford University Press who would be interested in the papers. These bundles are then despatched by Messenger on the Thursday before the Delegates' Meeting.
7. I attend each of the Delegates' Meetings and take the Minutes of those Meetings in shorthand. I then type up the Minutes from my shorthand notes onto the Minute Paper and make twenty copies one for each Delegate and one file copy for myself. I file the original typed Minute in the binder entitled 'Orders of the Delegates of the Oxford University Press' in date order. Each Delegate receives a copy of the Minutes of the last meeting with the papers for the next meeting.
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8. In 1985, the differences in procedure were as follows:
9. Each general book title was not listed separately on the draft Agenda, as it now is.
10. The deadline for the Editors to return the draft Agenda to me was four days before the Delegates' Meeting, not six days.
11. The deadline for Editors to give me Delegates' Notes relating to titles was 4.00 pm on the Friday before the Delegates' Meeting, not Wednesday.
12. The bundles of Agenda papers were despatched by the Messenger on Saturday morning, not Thursday and they did not include the Minutes of the last Delegates' Meeting. In 1985 the Minutes of the last Meeting were merely tabled at the next Meeting.
13. I did not attend Delegates' Meetings in 1985. At that time, a senior Editor in the Academic Division of Oxford University Press (now retired) took the Minutes. The manner in which he took those Minutes was that he would write notes on his copy of the typed Agenda. He would then hand this Agenda with the notes on it to me and I would type up the Minutes of the Delegates' Meeting. After typing up the Minutes, I would throw away his copy of the Agenda with his notes on it.
14. In the week following each Delegates' Meeting, it is my practice to compile a document which shows the details of publishing proposals accepted at each Meeting. I compile this document for my use in monitoring the number of books accepted and the estimates for the financial commitment involved in publishing them. This information is used in the preparation of statistics.
15. I have no recollection of seeing any Delegates' Notes relating to the Plaintiff's book entitled 'Making Names' in July 1985 and I can confirm that no reference to this title appears in the Agenda or Minutes of the Delegates' Meeting held on 23 July 1985.
Jean Margaret Goodall
Dated: 6th March 1990
Go to the next item in the Witnesses (yellow, blue) files.
Go to Malcolm's Statement of Claim, to the Case History, to the Affidavits: Ivon Asquith (1), Asquith (2), Henry Hardy, William Shaw (solicitor) (1), Sir Roger Elliott (1), Margaret Goodall, to the Witness Statements: Elliott, Hardy, Richard Charkin, Nicola Bion, Goodall, to the courtroom testimony of the Oxford Six, 14/3/1990: Elliott, Goodall, Bion, Asquith, Charkin, Hardy, to the testimony of Andrew Malcolm 13/3/1990, to the Chancery Court Judgment, to the Appeal Court Judgment, to the Damages assessment, to the Settlement agreement.
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