Source: All England Reporter
Publisher Citation: [2001] All ER (D) 313 (Dec)
Court: Chancery Division
Judge:

Lightman J
Representation Charles Hollander QC and Alan Maclean (instructed by Simmons & Simmons) for the claimant.
  Michael Tugendhat QC, Richard Parkes and Jonathan Barnes (instructed by Farrer & Co) for the defendants.
Judgment Dates: 19 December 2001

Catchwords

Discovery - Discovery of documents - Public interest - Claimant requesting preparation of presentation in contemplation of takeover of company - Unidentified source sending doctored copies of presentation to defendant news publishers - Claimant seeking delivery up to claimant of copies of doctored presentation for examination - Whether delivery up should be ordered - s 10 - European Convention on Human Rights, art 10.

The Case

Where a person through no fault of his own got mixed up in the wrongful acts of others, so as to facilitate their wrongdoing, though he might incur no personal liability, he came under a duty to assist the person who had been wronged by giving him full information and disclosing the identity of the wrongdoer. In the instant case, that principle applied to the defendants, and although the defendants could invoke the privilege of the press pursuant to art 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, and s10 of the the court would order the defendants to deliver up the documents they received, as the public interest in identifying the source was sufficiently compelling to override the defendants' and public interest in protecting the media's sources of information.

Practice Areas

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