Century v THLD

The case of Century v THLD was heard by the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The dispute involved a contractual matter between Century, a property developer, and THLD, a contractor, regarding a construction project. The primary issue was the scope of discovery in relation to documents held by Century, which THLD sought as part of its defence to a claim for breach of contract and alleged defective work. The court was tasked with determining whether the documents in question were protected by legal professional privilege and thus not subject to discovery.

The legal issues before the court were centred around the application of legal professional privilege to documents exchanged between Century and its legal advisors. Specifically, the court had to decide whether the documents in question were prepared in anticipation of litigation, and if so, whether they were protected by privilege. The court also had to consider the relevance of the documents to the issues in dispute and whether the privilege could be waived by Century.

The court found that the documents were indeed prepared in anticipation of litigation and were therefore protected by legal professional privilege. The court held that the privilege applied as the documents were prepared by Century's legal advisors with the specific purpose of providing legal advice in relation to the contractual dispute. The court further found that the privilege had not been waived by Century, as there was no evidence to suggest that Century had intended to waive the privilege. Consequently, the court ruled that the documents in question were not subject to discovery.

As a result of the court's decision, THLD's application for discovery of the documents was dismissed. The court ordered that Century was not required to produce the privileged documents to THLD. The judgment clarified the application of legal professional privilege in the context of construction disputes and reinforced the importance of maintaining privilege over documents prepared in anticipation of litigation.