Worth Recycling Pty Ltd v Waste Recycling and Processing Pty Ltd [2009] NSWCA 354

New South Wales Court of Appeal

CITATION: Worth Recycling Pty Ltd v Waste Recycling and Processing Pty Ltd [2009] NSWCA 354

HEARING DATE(S): 6 October 2009

JUDGMENT DATE: 4 November 2009

JUDGMENT OF: Spigelman CJ at 1; Hodgson JA at 2; Campbell JA at 50

1 Leave to appeal granted. DECISION: 2 Notice of Appeal to be filed within fourteen days. 3 Appeal dismissed. 4 Appellant to pay respondent's costs of the application and the appeal.

CATCHWORDS: LEGAL PRACTITIONERS - Solicitors - Obligations of confidence - Plaintiff's solicitor had acted for other parties against defendant in other proceedings raising similar issues - Those proceedings settled following mediation - Mediation agreement contained promise by parties not to disclose or use confidential information acquired in the course of the mediation - Whether plaintiff's solicitor owed an obligation of confidence to defendant - Whether there was a threat of breach of that obligation sufficient to justify an injunction against the solicitor acting for the plaintiff - Whether there was a basis for such an injunction in the inherent jurisdiction of the court

LEGISLATION CITED: Trade Practices Act 1974

Carter Holt Harvey Forests Ltd v Sunnex Logging Ltd (2001) 3 NZLR 343 House v The King [1936] HCA 40; (1936) 55 CLR 499 Kallinicos v Hunt [2005] NSWSC 1181; (2005) 64 NSWLR 561 CASES CITED: Mitchell v Pattern Holdings Pty Limited [2000] NSWSC 1015 Smith Kline & French Laboratories (Aust) Limited and others v Secretary, Department of Community Services and Health (1990) 22 FCR 73 Tricontinental Corporation v Holding Redlich (Supreme Court of Victoria, 22 December 1994, unreported) Warren v Coombes [1979] HCA 9; (1979) 142 CLR 531 Williamson v Schmidt [1998] 2 Qd R 317