Dring v Cape Intermediate Holdings Ltd

Dring v Cape Intermediate Holdings Ltd was an appeal from the Court of Appeal of England and Wales concerning the extent and operation of the principle of open justice. The case involved an application by the Asbestos Victims Support Groups Forum UK to obtain access to documents used in a trial concerning claims against Cape Intermediate Holdings Ltd for damages caused by asbestos exposure. The appeal raised three issues: the scope of CPR rule 5.4C(2), whether access to court documents is governed solely by the Civil Procedure Rules, and if there is an inherent jurisdiction to order access outside the Rules, how far it extends and how should it be exercised. The Supreme Court held that the Court of Appeal had jurisdiction to make the order that it did, but the basis of making any wider order was the inherent jurisdiction in support of the open justice principle, not the Civil Procedure Rules. The principles governing the exercise of that jurisdiction were those laid down in previous cases, and the Court of Appeal took a narrower view of both the jurisdiction and the applicable principles. The Supreme Court ordered that certain paragraphs of the Court of Appeal order stand, but replaced another paragraph with an order that the application be listed before Picken J to determine whether the court should require the appellant to provide a copy of any other document placed before the judge and referred to in the course of the trial to the respondent in accordance with the principles laid down by this court. The Supreme Court urged the bodies responsible for framing the court rules in each part of the United Kingdom to consider the questions of principle and practice raised by this case.