Vella v Organic Fertilisers (Leppington) Pty Limited [2020] NSWSC 669

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Vella v Organic Fertilisers (Leppington) Pty Limited [2020] NSWSC 669 Hearing dates: 21 May 2020 Date of orders: 21 May 2020 Decision date: 29 May 2020 Jurisdiction: Common Law Before: Lonergan J Decision: (1) I grant access to the parties to the material produced by Brydens solicitors on 18 May 2020.

(2) I set aside paragraphs 2(b), (c), (f) and (g) of the subpoena to produce documents directed to Brydens Lawyers Pty Limited.

(3) Documents in response to paragraph 3(a) of that subpoena are to be produced to Court by 3:00pm on Friday 22 May 2020.

(4) Each party is to pay its own costs of the notice of motion filed on 29 April 2020 Catchwords: CIVIL PROCEDURE — subpoenas — application to set aside — abuse of process — plaintiff claims subpoena is oppressive and non-specific — whether there is a legitimate forensic purpose CIVIL PROCEDURE — subpoenas — to produce documents — objection to production of documents — client legal privilege — question of waiver Legislation Cited: Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW) Workers Compensation Act 1987 (NSW) Cases Cited: Fenwick v Wambo Coal Pty Ltd (No 2) [2011] NSWSC 353 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Peter Vella (Plaintiff) Organic Fertilisers (Leppington) Pty Limited (Defendant) Representation: Counsel: M Campbell (Plaintiff) L Robison (Defendant)