Cases

White v Withers LLP & Dearle

Facts

C sought damages against D1, a solicitors firm who had represented his wife (W) in matrimonial proceedings and D2, a member of that firm, in respect of ‘breach of confidence and privacy, misuse of private information and wrongful interference with property’. W had taken personal documents from C with the intention of relying upon them in the divorce action (in accordance with the established Hildebrand practice).

C claimed that Ds were liable for W taking and intercepting those documents because, C alleged, Ds had advised that she do so, and D’s mere possession of the documents infringed C’s rights.

Ds applied for an order that the case be struck out on the basis (1) the pleaded case disclosed no cause of action and (2) it was an abuse of process, on the basis that C had brought the proceedings mainly in order to inconvenience W.

Also