Day 262 - 13 Jun 96 - Page 49
1
2 MR. RAMPTON: That is right, yes. It is in the Fleet Street
3 Reports for 1992, starting at page 66, and it is the
4 judgment of Aldous J., made, interestingly enough, it would
5 appear, without any reference to what Bingham L.J. had said
6 in the previous case, Ventouris v. Mountain. It is the bit
7 right at the end of the judgment, where the learned judge
8 said this:
9
10 MS. STEEL: Which page are we on?
11
12 MR. RAMPTON: 68, before the argument about leave to appeal. It
13 is the last paragraph of the judgment itself.
14
15 (Report not available for the shorthand writers)
16
17 "Having regard to the Wilde v. Pump case, it
18 would seem that patent agents are not legal
19 advisers for the purposes of French
20 proceedings. However, I do not consider that to
21 be relevant. Documents which are prepared,
22 whether at the instigation of a patent agent or
23 by anybody for the purpose of the proceedings,
24 that is for deciding whether the proceedings
25 should be defended...."
26
27 Or, as we would say in this case, brought --
28
29 "...whether evidence should be submitted or
30 advice should be sought from legal advisers are,
31 in my view, privileged."
32
33 If I may descend to the factual ground of this case, that
34 would mean -- though I do not have to go this far, in
35 actual fact -- that if Mr. Nicholson had said to the
36 inquiry agents, without the knowledge of the solicitors
37 (though, in fact, the solicitors were present as your
38 Lordship knows) "I want to stop this business, go and find
39 out who is doing it", and they had found out, and
40 Mr. Nicholson had then said, "Well, the game is not worth
41 the candle" and put the reports in the bin, those would
42 still be privileged reports, because the dominant purpose
43 for the inquiry was to find out who is doing it with an eye
44 to stopping it, if need be, by litigation.
45
46 It is right I tell your Lordship this, because I have now
47 ascertained -- and I like that old pronunciation which
48 Ms. Steel used, so I am going to continue to use it --
49 I have now ascertained that what happened, in fact, in
50 relation to the reports in this case was this: all the
51 reports up to the date of the issue of the writ were sent
52 by the inquiry agents to Mrs. Brinley-Codd at Barlow's.
53 All the reports were sent to Mrs. Brinley-Codd at Barlow's
54 up to the date of the issue of the writ. Thereafter -----
55
56 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Sent by them directly?
57
58 MR. RAMPTON: By them directly. She is not saying
59 Mr. Nicholson -----
60
