Day 262 - 13 Jun 96 - Page 71
1 responsible for the publication of the leaflet.
2
3 MR. HALL: Yes, yes.
4
5 MR. JUSTICE BELL: But the former one query: Does it let in
6 other reports received about that meeting or the event? If
7 the transaction is as broad as the latter, does it let in
8 any notes or reports relating to the activities of
9 London Greenpeace but biting on the activities of
10 London Greenpeace in so far as they may relate to
11 publication of the leaflet complained of?
12
13 MR. HALL: My Lord, I would have to conceive that it is open to
14 the interpretation that each attendance at a meeting by an
15 agent, the majority of the notes would constitute a single
16 separate transaction. That is a possible interpretation.
17 In my submission, it is also equally possible to hold that
18 the relevant transaction is the instructing of the inquiry
19 agent (the firm) and the receiving of reports or notes or
20 information from them as a result of their inquiries.
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: That is what I was querying: Whether it
23 could ever possibly be an instruction to look into an event
24 or a series of events, or whether the transaction must be
25 the event or the series of events.
26
27 MR. HALL: What most of the authorities that I have read have
28 been at great pains to make clear is that whatever the
29 ruling, the aim of a ruling in relation to privilege is to
30 ensure a just result and that justice is done. In the
31 context of this case, and the nature of the documents that
32 your Lordship is concerned with, it is my submission that
33 the only appropriate interpretation of "transaction" is
34 that the relevant transaction was the instructing of the
35 inquiry agents in September/October 1989 and the continuing
36 process of receiving reports from them over the months that
37 followed.
38
39 I have given some thought to the word "transaction" and
40 perhaps its inappropriateness in the context in which it
41 has been used in other authorities. The only other word or
42 phrase that I could suggest as encompassing the intent
43 behind the rulings and judgments that have been given is to
44 substitute the phrase "course of conduct". I say that
45 partly with another authority in mind which the Plaintiffs
46 have supplied previously, and that is the case of Lillicrap
47 v. Nalder & Son.
48
49 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Where is that report?
50
51 MR. HALL: That is to be found reported in [1993] All England
52 Reports, Volume 1, at page 724. In that case the
53 Plaintiffs were property developers who sued their
54 solicitors for negligence. It related to a land
55 transaction and the property developers discovered that
56 there was a right of way across land that they had bought,
57 their solicitors having conducted the business in relation
58 to the purchase of that land. The defendants' firm of
59 solicitors wished to rely, having eventually conceded
60 negligence, on other transactions (I use the term in the
