Hancock v Rinehart [2015] NSWSC 2140

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Hancock v Rinehart [2015] NSWSC 2140 Hearing dates: 15 October 2015 Date of orders: 15 October 2015 Decision date: 15 October 2015 Jurisdiction: Equity Before: Brereton J Decision: Access to documents produced under subpoena granted. Catchwords: PROCEDURE – subpoenae – documents produced to court – access to documents – where documents sought in aid of notice of motion – relevance of documents to determining whether first defendant has complied with obligation to produce trust documents – rights of confidentiality of third party – where third party has not opposed subpoena – whether subpoena issued as abuse of process – where subpoena issued before filing of notice of motion – where issues in notice of motion must reasonably have been contemplated by first defendant to be in dispute – where documents sought under subpoena not required to be produced under orders in substantive proceedings – orders for production not inclusive of relevance of document to issues in dispute in motion – where subpoena issued without first seeking production of documents voluntarily – no general rule requiring request for voluntary production before issuing subpoenae – discretion of court to grant access – factors relevant to exercise of discretion – strong predilection to granting access in absence of claim of confidentiality. Cases Cited: Frontier Assets Pty Ltd v Fishburn [2011] NSWSC 334 Category: Procedural and other rulings Parties: John Langley Hancock (first plaintiff) Bianca Hope Rinehart (second plaintiff) Gina Hope Rinehart (first defendant) Ginia Hope Frances Rinehart (second defendant) Hope Rinehart Welker (third defendant) Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd (fourth defendant) Hope Downs Iron Ore Pty Ltd (fifth defendant) Representation: Counsel: C H Withers w A M Hochroth (plaintiffs) B McClintock SC w R Mansted (first defendant)