The Owners - Strata Plan No. 74602 v Eastmark Holdings Pty Limited [2013] NSWCA 221

Court of Appeal Supreme Court New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: The Owners - Strata Plan No. 74602 v Eastmark Holdings Pty Limited [2013] NSWCA 221 Hearing dates: 19 - 20 June 2013 Decision date: 19 July 2013 Before: Macfarlan JA at [1]; Meagher and Emmett JJA at [2]. Decision: The Court orders that: 1. Leave to appeal be granted and the appeal be allowed. 2. The matter be remitted to the primary judge, with a direction that the documents or parts of the documents identified in the reasons as not relating to obtaining or giving advice in connection with the Agreement, as defined in the reasons, should not be made available for inspection by the respondent. 3. There be no order as to the costs of the application for leave to appeal or of the appeal. [Note: The Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 provide (Rule 36.11) that unless the Court otherwise orders, a judgment or order is taken to be entered when it is recorded in the Court's computerised court record system. Setting aside and variation of judgments or orders is dealt with by Rules 36.15, 36.16, 36.17 and 36.18. Parties should in particular note the time limit of fourteen days in Rule 36.16.] Catchwords: PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE - legal professional privilege - where privilege asserted by owners corporation against lot owner - whether common or joint interest applies - where subpoenaed documents related to a proceeding that lot owner pursued solely for benefit of owners corporation and in which lot owner sought no relief against owners corporation - where owners corporation sought to dispute that claim by lot owner - where subpoenaed documents also related to other proceedings in which owners corporation and lot owner were adversaries Legislation Cited: Strata Schemes Management Act 1996 Part 2, s 108 Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) s 247A Cases Cited: Hanks v Admiralty Resources NL [2011] FCA 1464 Category: Principal judgment Parties: The Owners - Strata Plan No. 74602 (Appellant) Eastmark Holdings Pty Limited (Respondent) Representation: Counsel: N Hutley SC; KC Morgan (Applicant) P W Gray SC; B Oliak (Respondent) Solicitors: Tresscox Lawyers (Applicant) Swaab Attorneys (Respondent) File Number(s): CA 2012/387127 Decision under appeal Citation: [2012] NSWSC 1463 Date of Decision: 2012-12-03 00:00:00 Before: Hallen J File Number(s): 2011/328524