Bright v Femcare Ltd [2000] FCA 1344

FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Bright v Femcare Ltd [2000] FCA 1344 PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – representative proceeding under Pt IVA of the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 (Cth) in which defences have not yet been filed, motions seeking orders under s 33N of the Act that the proceeding not continue as a representative proceeding have been foreshadowed, and opt out notices have not yet been given – subpoenas issued to ten public hospitals which are strangers to the litigation – application by the hospitals for orders setting aside the subpoenas in whole, or striking out certain paragraphs of each, or forbidding access to any documents produced in answer thereto – evidence that the process of identifying and extracting the documents for the purpose of complying with the subpoenas would be burdensome and time consuming for the hospitals – relevance, in determining whether the burden of complying with a subpoena issued to a stranger to a proceeding under Pt IVA is oppressive, that the stranger owes an obligation of confidence to other persons in respect of information contained in certain of the documents which the subpoena would require to be produced which would, at this particular stage of the proceeding, be protected by an order forbidding access to those documents – relevance of the fact that that information may be required to give appropriate opt out notices to class members – relevance of the fact that information contained in certain of the documents which the subpoena would require to be produced, other than that in respect of which the obligation of confidence exists, might be relevant to the determination of any motion seeking an order under s 33N

Federal Court of Australia Act 1976 (Cth), Pt IVA

Waind v Hill [1978] 1 NSWLR 372, distinguished

KERRIE BRIGHT v FEMCARE LIMITED and ENDOVASIVE PTY LIMITED N 410 OF 1999 LEHANE J 8 SEPTEMBER 2000 SYDNEY