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

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