The claimants had suffered having lost deposits with the Bank of Credit and Commerce International. They claimed their losses from the respondents as regulators of the bank, for negligence and misfeasance in public office. The action was based upon the Bingham report, and they sought disclosure of documents provided to the Enquiry. They appealed findings that the actual respondents to the application did not have possession of the documents sought. The Treasury cross-appealed an order not requiring the claimant to specify the documents sought, saying that the threshold condition under the rules had not been met.
Held: It was not necessary to show that it was more likely than not that the documents would be of assistance. The tests were to be applied to the class of documents, and not each document in turn. Appeals dismissed. ”likely’ [within the rules] does not carry any necessary connotation of ‘more probable than not’. It is a word which takes its meaning from context. And where the context is a jurisdictional threshold to the exercise of a discretionary power, there may be good reason to suppose that the legislature – or the rule-making body, as the case may be – intended a modest threshold of probability.’
The Master of The Rolls, Lord Justice Chadwick And Lord Justice Keene
Times 04-Oct-2002, Gazette 10-Oct-2002, [2002] EWCA Civ 1182, [2003] 1 WLR 210, [2002] 4 All ER 881, [2003] CP Rep 9, [2003] CPLR 181
Bailii
Civil Procedure Rules 31.17(3)(a)
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – American Home Products Corporation, Professor Roy Calne v Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK Limited, Novartis Pharma AG CA 27-Jul-2000
The invention was a second medical use for a known drug rapamycin, which was found to have an immuno-suppressive effect. The court asked whether a claim to rapamycin should be construed to include derivatives.
Held: A person skilled in the art . .
Cited by:
Cited – Lord, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department Admn 1-Sep-2003
The claimant was a category A prisoner serving a sentence of life imprisonment for murder. He sought the reasons for his categorisation as a Class A prisoner. Unhappy at the disclosure made, he sought information under the 1998 Act. It was argued . .
Cited – Flood v Times Newspapers Ltd and others QBD 5-Mar-2009
The claimant police officer complained of an alleged defamation in an article published by the defendant. The defendant wished to obtain information from the IPCC to show that they were investigating the matter as a credible issue. The court . .
Cited – Clifford v NGN Ltd and Mulcaire ChD 3-Feb-2010
There are three steps in every case where a party seeks disclosure from a third party: ‘(1) First it has to be shown that the documentation is likely to support the case of the applicant or adversely affect the case of the respondent. The word . .
Cited – Andrew v News Group Newspapers Ltd and Commissioner of the Police for the Metropolis ChD 18-Mar-2011
The claimant sought unredacted disclosure of documents by the second defendant so that he could pursue an action against the first, who, he said, were thought to have intercepted his mobile phone messages, and where the second defendant had . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Litigation Practice, Civil Procedure Rules
Leading Case
Updated: 02 November 2021; Ref: scu.174769
