Mead Corporation v Carbonless Papers (Australia) Pty Ltd

Mead Corporation, the plaintiff, sought leave to use documents discovered by the defendants in other proceedings against the opposing party. Carbonless Papers (Australia) Pty Ltd and others, the defendants, sought an injunction restraining the plaintiff from using the documents in question for any purpose save the prosecution or defence of claims in the current proceedings before the Supreme Court of Western Australia. The court had to decide whether special reasons existed to justify the grant of leave to use the subject documents in the manner proposed and whether the implied undertaking not to make use of discovered documents for a collateral purpose should be relaxed. The court found that in certain circumstances the implied undertaking will be relaxed where a party wishes to advance a cross claim against the opposing party as a consequence of matters brought to light in the course of the discovery process. The court must have regard to the interests of justice. The court found that the plaintiff should be granted leave to use the subject documents as proposed. The application for an injunction was refused.