CIVIL PROCEDURE — Discovery — Whether necessary for resolution of real issues in dispute — Where family dispute over significant commercial property development — No issue of principle
CIVIL PROCEDURE — Notices to produce — Application to set aside — Where 64 categories of document called for under notice to produce issued at the same time as motion seeking discovery of 87 categories of document — Whether entire notice to produce is abuse of process — Whether documents called for are specific and relevant — No issue of principle
Quick Take
1Under Practice Note SC Eq 11, discovery in the Equity Division will not be ordered unless it is 'necessary' for the resolution of the real issues in dispute, meaning reasonably required for the fair disposition of the matter, not essential.
2A notice to produce issued contemporaneously with a discovery motion containing substantially overlapping categories is not automatically an abuse of process warranting wholesale set-aside, but individual categories lacking specificity or apparent relevance will be set aside, and the inefficient approach may sound in costs.
3A notice to produce must identify documents with reasonable particularity; categories calling for all documents relating to a subject matter amount to impermissible discovery and will be set aside on a category-by-category basis.
