Health and Life Care Ltd (Receivers and Managers Appointed) v Price Waterhouse and Robert Lister and Co Ltd (No. 2) No. SCGRG 93/289 Judgment No. 4373 Number of Pages 5 Discovery and Interrogatories

The case of Health and Life Care Ltd (Receivers and Managers Appointed) v Price Waterhouse and Robert Lister and Co Ltd (No. 2) involved a dispute where the defendant sought discovery and inspection of documents against a probable third party, Robert Lister and Company Pty Ltd. The plaintiff, Health and Life Care Ltd, had retained Price Waterhouse, the defendant, as an expert to advise on the fairness of an acquisition of new assets. The defendant intended to bring proceedings against Lister for a breach of duty, which would contribute to any judgment in favour of the plaintiff. The legal issues revolved around the application of Supreme Court Rule 60, particularly the relevance of documents and whether they needed to be individually specified.

The court considered the nature of the application and the existing pleadings, holding that the relevance of documents could be inferred from the pleadings and the affidavits supporting the application. The court noted that Rule 60 was broader than previous rules and that it was not necessary to individually specify documents when seeking discovery against a probable third party. The court also dismissed objections regarding confidentiality and oppression, finding that the discovery was limited to documents relied upon by Lister in formulating its advice.

The court granted the application, allowing the defendant to discover certain classes of documents from Lister, subject to the plaintiff being aware of the terms of the order and considering any claims for privilege. The court made clear that the discovery would not include irrelevant or voluminous client records unless they became relevant in the course of the proceedings.