Jaeger v Bowden [2015] NSWSC 1479

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Jaeger v Bowden [2015] NSWSC 1479 Hearing dates: 22 June 2015 Date of orders: 09 October 2015 Decision date: 09 October 2015 Jurisdiction: Equity Before: Robb J Decision: The parties are directed to bring in short minutes of order to give effect to these reasons for judgment. Catchwords: PROCEDURE – discovery – plaintiff and defendants both seek discovery of additional documents and inspection of various documents produced to the court on subpoena – whether the disclosure of various documents requested by the plaintiff is not necessary for the purposes of Practice Note SC Eq 11 par 5 – whether there is evidence that the defendants have any other documents, additional to what has already been disclosed – whether various documents requested by either side are privileged – whether the respective privileges have been waived – in relation to some categories of discovery, defendants are ordered to serve an affidavit unequivocally stating their position – plaintiff entitled to this verification – plaintiff granted access to the majority of the requested documents produced on subpoena – defendants not entitled to verification or discovery by plaintiff of documents sought – defendants have not established the relevance of accessing documents produced on subpoena to issues in dispute in the proceedings – access not granted Legislation Cited: Evidence Act 1995 (NSW) Succession Act 2006 (NSW) Cases Cited: Attorney-General (NT) v Maurice [1986] HCA 80; (1986) 161 CLR 475 Council of the New South Wales Bar Association v Archer [2008] NSWCA 164; (2008) 72 NSWLR 236 d'Apice v Gutkovich [2010] NSWSC 1336 Daniels Corp International Pty Ltd v Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) [2002] HCA 49; (2002) 213 CLR 543 Elliott v Tippett [2008] VSC 175; (2008) 20 VR 195 In the matter of Gerard Cassegrain & Co Pty Ltd [2011] NSWSC 241 Leighton International v Hodges; Thiess v Reinforced Earth [2012] NSWSC 458 Standard Chartered Bank of Australia Ltd v Antico (1993) 36 NSWLR 87 Vic Hotel Pty Ltd v DC Payments Australasia Pty Ltd [2015] VSCA 101; (2015) 321 ALR 191 Wentworth v New South Wales Bar Association (1992) 176 CLR 239 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: Kim Jaeger in her capacity as executor of the estate of the late Adelaide Emily Bowden (plaintiff) Stephen Bowden (first defendant) Jane Bowden (second defendant) Butlers Bridge Pty Ltd (third defendant) Kettleswell Pty Ltd (fourth defendant) Bowden Hotel Investments Pty Ltd (fifth defendant) Bowden Property Investments Pty Ltd (sixth defendant) Ritz Restaurants (Hurstville) Pty Ltd (seventh defendant) Hurstville Property Investments Pty Ltd (eighth defendant) Bowden Company Pty Ltd (ninth defendant) Samook Pty Ltd (tenth defendant) Representation: Counsel: N Beaumont SC/C Bannan (plaintiff) M Willmott SC/S Philips (first and third to tenth defendants)