Gourand v Edison Gower Bell Telephone Co of Europe Ltd: ChD 1888

Shareholders in the defendant company challenged its claim to legal privilege. They argued that when the directors obtained the advice in question, they did so on behalf of the company as a whole, and that they could not, therefore, assert privilege in the advice as against the shareholders.
Held: The shareholders were entitled to discovery of the documents in question by analogy with the practice that applied in partnership cases (and those concerning trustees and beneficiaries) where advice had been obtained for the benefit of the partnership or trust estate. The rationale of such cases is that there is no distinction between the interests of the partnership and the individual partners and the trust and its beneficiaries.

Judges:

Chitty J

Citations:

(1888) 57 LJ Ch 498

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

CitedFord, Regina (on The Application of) v The Financial Services Authority Admn 11-Oct-2011
The claimant sought, through judicial review, control over 8 emails sent by them to their lawyers. They claimed legal advice privilege, but the emails contained advice sent by their chartered accountants. The defendant had sought to use them in the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Company, Legal Professions

Updated: 10 September 2022; Ref: scu.460498