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Judgment
Lord Justice Ward:
It is the well known duty of parties in proceedings for ancillary relief after divorce to give full and frank disclosure of their means. Sometimes, however, one party (I shall assume for the purpose of this judgment that it is the wife, although, as will be seen, it may be the husband) will fear that the other will conceal the extent of his (or her) wealth from the court. The response is a pre-emptive strike: the wife plunders his documents and appropriates them to use in the ancillary relief proceedings. In the Family Division the purloined documents are known as “ Hildebrand documents”, so named after Hildebrand v Hildebrand [1992] 1 FLR 244 . The novel question which arises in this appeal is whether, and if so in what circumstances, the wife’s solicitors may be liable in damages to the husband “for breach of confidence, misuse of personal information, invasion of privacy and wrongful interference with property by possessing, taking or intercepting the claimant’s correspondence and documents including personal family letters, private and confidential letters concerning business opportunities and documents containing financial information.”
That was the claim brought by Mr Marco Pierre White against Withers LLP, one of the leading firms of divorce lawyers, Mr Marcus Dearle, one of its partners, and Mrs Matilde White, the claimant’s wife. On 19th November 2008 Eady J. struck the action out. On the direction of my Lord, Wilson L.J., Mr White’s application for permission to appeal was adjourned to this Court with the appeal to follow if permission be granted. For reasons which will become apparent, I would grant permission to appeal.
The facts in a little more detail
Marco Pierre White is a very well-known chef and restaurateur. He had been previously married and has a daughter Letitia, known as Letty, by that earlier marriage. He and Matilde began to live together in 1993 and married on 7th April 2000. They have three children. The marriage appears to have become unhappy and they separated in the summer of 2006 but were reconciled and entered into a deed of reconciliation in September 2006. Sadly the reconciliation broke down and they parted finally in January 2007. On 8th March 2007 Mrs White issued a petition for divorce and in due time began her claim for ancillary relief.
In their Defence, Withers and Mr Marcus Dearle whom I shall henceforth call “the defendants”, the claim against Mrs White having been discontinued o