New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

New Zealand Case Law

Joint interest exception

  • 18 Oct 2022

    COOKE v BUTLER [2022] NZHC 2687

    Citation
    [2022] NZHC 2687
    Court
    High Court

    The Court granted targeted discovery limited to documents genuinely relevant to the pleaded issues and proportional to the litigation. It ordered discovery of all documents concerning the $100,000 advance to Andrew (2007) including accounting treatment and communications, required disclosure of trustees' advice and communications about calling up the $100,000 debt (when litigation was not yet inevitable), and limited any disclosure of privileged material under the joint interest exception to documents created before the joint interest ended (concluded to subsist until late 2020/around 10 Dece…

  • 15 Sept 2021

    EASTGATE v WALKER-PRENTICE [2021] NZHC 2438

    Citation
    [2021] NZHC 2438
    Court
    High Court

    Litigation privilege was upheld: the applicant, as independent executor, was entitled to retain privilege over his litigation file and legal advice because the dominant purpose was preparation for litigation, the parties' positions and interests were not sufficiently aligned to engage the joint interest exception, and no waiver or applicable exception required disclosure; accordingly the respondent's challenge to privilege was dismissed.

  • 13 Jul 2021

    BERIC v EADY [2021] NZHC 1755

    Citation
    [2021] NZHC 1755
    Court
    High Court

    The court held the estate planning documents were privileged under s54 of the Evidence Act 2006; inclusion of files in a discovery list did not effect a general or implied waiver; the limited documents already disclosed did not waive privilege over the remainder; the joint interest exception did not apply because the documents were created by the deceased before the estate existed and the plaintiff did not hold an unqualified beneficial interest; accordingly the application to set aside the privilege claims was dismissed.