Grattan & Grattan & Anor (No. 5)

In *Grattan & Grattan & Anor (No. 5)*, Cronin J of the Supreme Court of New South Wales considered a dispute concerning the discoverability of documents that had been marked as privileged in a subpoena bundle. The applicants sought to inspect these documents, while the respondents asserted privilege.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether the documents, having been identified as privileged in the subpoena bundle and subsequently sealed, were nonetheless discoverable by the applicants. This required the Court to determine the proper application of privilege principles in the context of a subpoena and the subsequent sealing of documents.

Cronin J reasoned that the documents marked privileged in the subpoena bundle and sealed were not to be released for inspection. The Court's decision implicitly affirmed the principle that a claim of privilege, once properly made and upheld, prevents disclosure. The Court granted leave to each party to relist the matter on the question of discoverability, indicating that while immediate inspection was refused, the broader issue of whether the documents were discoverable in principle remained open for further argument.