Pioneer Energy Holdings v Seth [2014] NSWSC 492

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Pioneer Energy Holdings v Seth [2014] NSWSC 492 Hearing dates: 27/03/2014 Decision date: 27 March 2014 Jurisdiction: Equity Division - Commercial List Before: McDougall J Decision: Defendants to give preliminary discovery as sought. Catchwords: PROCEDURE - Preliminary discovery - whether plaintiffs had sufficient information to enable them to decide whether or not to commence proceedings - whether court should order preliminary discovery where parties already in dispute and are able to bring a cross-claim - whether application for preliminary discovery an attempt to circumvent the operation of Practice Note SC Eq 11 - whether documents could instead be sought by way of subpoena - whether preliminary discovery can be sought to assess viability of a cause of action - Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW), r 5.3. Legislation Cited: Legal Profession Act 2004 (NSW) Uniform Civil Procedure Rules 2005 (NSW) Cases Cited: Commissioner for Railways v Small (1938) 38 SR(NSW) 564 Contour Building & Construction Pty Ltd v Kerr [2008] NSWSC 883 Hatfield v TCN Channel Nine Pty Limited (2010) 77 NSWLR 506 Murray v Wheeler [2013] NSWSC 137 Shannon v Gadens Lawyers Sydney [2013] NSWSC 417 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Pioneer Energy Holdings Pty Ltd (First Plaintiff) Pioneer Energy Pty Ltd (Second Plaintiff) Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc (Third Plaintiff) Prakash Seth (First Defendant) Charlie Di Francesco (Second Defendant) Blue Oil Energy Pty Ltd (Third Defendant) Blue Diamond (Australia) Pty Ltd (Fourth Defendant) Representation: Counsel: J K Kirk SC / D Klineberg (Plaintiffs) V Culkoff (Defendants) Solicitors: King & Wood Mallesons (Plaintiffs) Spinks Eagle Lawyers (Defendants) File Number(s): 2013/382978