POL00103412 - Email Chain from Ken McCall to Jane MacLeod, Tim Parker, Carla Stent and Others re: Postmaster Litigation - Confidential and Subject to Legal Privilege - Do Not Forward

Evidence on official site

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Message

From: KenMcCali

on behalf of —§ Ken McCall

Sent:

To:

cc: Paula Vennells Alisdair Cameron ‘} Veronica
Branton!

Subject: Re: Postmaster Litigation - CONFIDENTIAL AND SUBJECT TO LEGAL PRIVILEGE - DO NOT FORWARD

Jane

Frankly I am extremely surprised given our most recent Barrister Opinion to lose on all material points
I look forward to hearing your thoughts in due course

Best regards

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From: Jane MacLeod
Sent: Friday, March 8, 2019 5:25 pm
To: Tim Parker; Ken McCalfizi Carla Stentés\Cooper, Tom - UKGI; Tim.Franklin
Cc: Paula Vennells; Alisdair Cameron; Veronica Branton

Subject: Postmaster Litigation - CONFIDENTIAL AND SUBJECT TO LEGAL PRIVILEGE - DO NOT FORWARD

hirine Khoury-Haq

All

We received the judgment this morning in the Common Issues Trial. The judgment is 325 pages and very detailed, and
as a result we have not yet read it completely or fully understood all the arguments. However a high level review
indicates:
e = We have lost on all material points
@ — The judge has criticised Post Office comprehensively — both as to our historic operations and behaviours and
our conduct of the case
e The judge accepts the evidence of the Lead Claimants but is sceptical of our witnesses who he characterises as
‘extraordinarily partisan’
e He has struck out the key contractual provisions which require postmasters to account to Post Office, and
@ He has stated that the Branch Trading Statement — which is the key document on which Post Office relies for
postmasters to account for cash and stock in branches — cannot be relied on as a statement of account.

The judgment will be handed down formally either next Friday (15"") or on Monday 18". In the meantime we are
working on grounds for appeal.

We have activated our contingency planning in order that we have communications and detailed plans available and
ready to launch at the point the judgment is formally handed down. In the meantime, the judgment is subject to
embargo and cannot be shared or discussed outside of Post Office and its legal team. We are keeping the news to a

tight team within Post Office.

There are many questions that we cannot yet answer and we need some time to fully digest the verdict. We will
therefore be setting up a Board call probably on Tuesday. In the meantime, please call either myself or Al as needed.

Jane

POL-0102995
Jane MacLeod

Group Director of Legal, Risk & Governance
Ground Floor

20 Finsbury Street

LONDON

EC2Y SAQ

Mobile number:

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POL-0102995