Amaca Pty Limited v CSR Limited (Re Fisher) (No. 1) [2019] NSWDDT 9

Dust Diseases Tribunal New South Wales Medium Neutral Citation: Amaca Pty Limited v CSR Limited (Re Fisher) (No. 1) [2019] NSWDDT 9 Hearing dates: 4 October 2019 Date of orders: 10 October 2019 Decision date: 10 October 2019 Before: Russell SC DCJ Decision: (1) Adjourn the hearing of this matter to a date to be fixed. (2) Order the plaintiff to pay the defendant's costs thrown away by reason of the adjournment of the hearing set down for 4 October 2019. (3) Refuse leave to the defendant to inspect the documents produced pursuant to paragraph 1 of the Notice to Produce dated 25 September 2019; the documents produced are to be returned to the plaintiff. (4) Grant leave to the defendant to inspect the documents produced pursuant to paragraph 2 of the Notice to Produce dated 25 September 2019. (5) Note that further invoices will be produced by the plaintiff in response to paragraph 3 of the Notice to Produce and that there will be no opposition to inspection of those further documents by the defendant. (6) Order each party pay its own costs of the argument in relation to the Notice to Produce. Catchwords: EVIDENCE – Notice to produce – application for leave to inspect – resisted on grounds of client legal privilege and lack of legitimate forensic purpose

EVIDENCE – whether judge should inspect documents produced to determine privilege claim – whether party claiming privilege has acted inconsistently with the production of the documents

EVIDENCE – leave granted to inspect costs agreements where plaintiff claimed against a tortfeasor for contribution towards reasonable defence costs – plaintiff had acted inconsistently in seeking to tender tax invoices but claiming privilege over costs agreements which founded the tax invoices