Timbercorp Finance Pty Ltd v Tomes (privilege)

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF VICTORIA Not Restricted

AT MELBOURNE

COMMERCIAL COURT

S CI 2014 04921

TIMBERCORP FINANCE PTY LTD (in liquidation) (ACN 054 581 190)	Plaintiff
v
JOHN CHARLES TOMES	Defendant

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JUDGE:	Lansdowne AsJ
WHERE HELD:	Melbourne
DATE OF HEARING:	15 May 2019 and 12 June 2019
DATE OF JUDGMENT:	3 July 2019
CASE MAY BE CITED AS:	Timbercorp Finance Pty Ltd v Tomes (privilege)
MEDIUM NEUTRAL CITATION:	[2019] VSC 445

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EVIDENCE – Claim for litigation privilege – Emails between lawyers for the defendant and a witness and statement of that witness – Whether shown to be confidential – Evidence insufficient to establish that confidential – On inspection, others copied in to the emails by, and without objection by, the defendant’s lawyers – Held: not confidential or, in the alternative, privilege waived by disclosure.

EVIDENCE – Claim for common interest privilege – Email from a third party to defendant’s lawyers attaching a statement from a witness in relation to matters common to that third party, the defendant and certain other persons - The defendant, the third party and those certain other persons each defend a similar claim against them by the plaintiff on the same basis - Whether disclosure of the statement to the third party and those other persons is the subject of the common interest exception to waiver - Obiter: even if the statement was the subject of the defendant’s litigation privilege (which is not established)  the claimed common interest could not be made out because there is no evidence that one person copied in to the email had any such common interest.

Evidence Act 2008 (Vic) ss 117, 119, 122 (5)(c).

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APPEARANCES:	Counsel	Solicitors
For the Plaintiff	Dr C Parkinson with Mr T Barry	Mills Oakley
For the Defendant	Mr G Moffatt	Somerset Ryckmans, Solicitors

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction......................................................................................................................................... 1

Documents in contest: as described by the defendant................................................................ 1

Submissions........................................................................................................................................ 1

Legal principles.................................................................................................................................. 1

Inspection....................................................................................................................................... 1

Confidentiality............................................................................................................................... 1

Obligation............................................................................................................................. 1

Presence of others................................................................................................................ 1

Who must be under the obligation................................................................................... 1

Inspection to ascertain whether intended to be confidential........................................ 1

Waiver............................................................................................................................................. 1

Common interest privilege.......................................................................................................... 1

Evidence............................................................................................................................................... 1

Evidence in support of privilege claim..................................................................................... 1

Who attended the meeting in Perth?................................................................................ 1

Two statements or one?...................................................................................................... 1

Disclosure of Mr Broad’s statement or statements......................................................... 1

Purpose and use of the instructions and statements..................................................... 1

Who wrote the statement or statements?......................................................................... 1

When Mr Herskope ceased to act..................................................................................... 1

Evidence against privilege claim............................................................................................... 1

Consideration...................................................................................................................................... 1

Summary........................................................................................................................................ 1

Privilege......................................................................................................................................... 1

Emails between Mr Broad and the defendants’ lawyers: Categories 4 and 5............ 1

Bodycoat Document............................................................................................................ 1

Waiver............................................................................................................................................. 1

Common interest privilege.......................................................................................................... 1

Conclusion and orders...................................................................................................................... 1

HER HONOUR:

Introduction

1. In this proceeding, the plaintiff seeks to recover moneys advanced to the defendant in connection with an investment in the Timbercorp plantations.  The proceeding will be listed for trial at a callover before her Honour Justice Kennedy in late July 2019, the trial being anticipated to be in August of this year. 

1. These reasons concern…