The Minister of Education v James Hardie New Zealand [2020] NZHC 82

The Minister of Education v James Hardie New Zealand [2020] NZHC 82

Carter Holt must provide a list of discovered documents that complies with the Listing and Exchange Protocol in Schedule 9 to the High Court Rules because the Protocol's requirements are mandatory under r 8.15 and Carter Holt's reliance on extracted metadata and searchable PDFs does not satisfy the mandatory form and content requirements; ordering re-coding is not disproportionate given the case scale and the importance of usable discovery.

Citation
[2020] NZHC 82
Parties
First to Fourth Plaintiffs: The Minister of Education and Others; First Defendant: James Hardie New Zealand; Second Defendant: Studorp Limited; Third Defendant: Carter Holt Harvey Limited; Fourth Defendant: CSR Building Products (NZ) Limited; First to Fifty Third Parties: Auckland Council and other territorial authorities listed in Schedule 1 to the First Amended Statement of Claim
Court
High Court
Jurisdiction
New Zealand
Judgment Date
4 February 2020
Procedural Posture
Claims Under Consumers Guarantees Act 1993; Fair Trading Act 1986; Building Act 2004 / Pre Trial (discovery/application)
Outcome
Order made that Carter Holt provide a list of documents that complies with the Listing and Exchange Protocol in Schedule 9 of the High Court Rules
Legal Topics
Listing and Exchange Protocol (schedule 9), Affidavit of Documents (r 8.15), Electronic Discovery / Metadata Versus Manual Coding, Proportionality in Discovery, Costs of Discovery
Civil Procedure Evidence/discovery Consumer Law Building Law Fair Trading Listing and Exchange Protocol (schedule 9) Affidavit of Documents (r 8.15) Electronic Discovery / Metadata Versus Manual Coding +2 more

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Parties

The Minister of Education and Others

First to Fourth Plaintiffs

James Hardie New Zealand

First Defendant

Studorp Limited

Second Defendant

Carter Holt Harvey Limited

Third Defendant

CSR Building Products (NZ) Limited

Fourth Defendant

Auckland Council and other territorial authorities listed in Schedule 1 to the First Amended Statement of Claim

First to Fifty Third Parties

Procedural Posture

Claims Under Consumers Guarantees Act 1993; Fair Trading Act 1986; Building Act 2004 / Pre Trial (discovery/application)

Legal Issues

  1. 1 Whether Carter Holt must file and serve a list of discovered documents compliant with the Listing and Exchange Protocol in Schedule 9 to the High Court Rules 2016
  2. 2 Whether use of extracted electronic metadata and provision of full-text searchable PDF images displaces or satisfies the Protocol's mandatory fields
  3. 3 Whether ordering re-coding is disproportionate given stage of proceedings and volume of documents

Ratio Decidendi

Carter Holt must provide a list of discovered documents that complies with the Listing and Exchange Protocol in Schedule 9 to the High Court Rules because the Protocol's requirements are mandatory under r 8.15 and Carter Holt's reliance on extracted metadata and searchable PDFs does not satisfy the mandatory form and content requirements; ordering re-coding is not disproportionate given the case scale and the importance of usable discovery.

Court Disposition

Order made that Carter Holt provide a list of documents that complies with the Listing and Exchange Protocol in Schedule 9 of the High Court Rules

Orders

  • Carter Holt to provide a discovery list that complies with Schedule 9 (Listing and Exchange Protocol) of the High Court Rules
  • Parties to confer on the scope of re-coding work so existing compliant parts need not be redone