SMH ordered to hand over emails sent to David Round- Force informer

Fairfax ordered to supply emails on secret

March 20, 2008 05:49am
A NEWSPAPER has been ordered to hand over emails sent to a WA rugby official accused of leaking information about secret payments to top players.

The West Australian Rugby Union is suing its former chief financial officer David Round for undisclosed damages, claiming he breached his employment contract by passing on confidential information to The Sydney Morning Herald investigations editor Gerard Ryle.

The WARU is seeking a court injunction to stop Mr Round using or disclosing the information again.

The West Australian Supreme Court ordered Ryle and the newspaper to provide hundreds of emails and notes of phone conversations with Mr Round as part of the civil action by the WARU.

A Fairfax spokesman said yesterday the company would appeal.

I hope it turns out SMH are guilty of some serious misconduct....



Fairfax ordered to supply emails on secret payments | PerthNow

Here's the decision:
WESTERN AUSTRALIAN RUGBY UNION (INC) -v- ROUND [2008] WASC 35 (18 March 2008)

tsk tsk tsk....David Round

Lol...its about time

Comment from Force1??





Didn't think so.

Next will come the arrest warrant for Grumbles for using child labor in his pie factory

I dont understand what most of that says...but Mr Round didnt even roll up (pun intended) for the court hearing?

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Originally Posted by laura

I dont understand what most of that says...but Mr Round didnt even roll up (pun intended) for the court hearing?

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Court hearings are tremendously boring, , by the sound of the court case he is absolutely screwed, leaking confidential information is a big no no in any situation, he probably didn't show up because he would be under oath and if asked to testify perhaps even more could have came out which could incriminate him...

On a side note, they had a Queens Counsil present for the case, that perhaps shows how serious this is...

None of that was the actual court case, it was entirely about forcing Ryle and Fairfax to make available by court order all correspondence between them and Round, that's all.

BOOYAH!! hope Roundie gets his just deserts and then the Force can then set their sights on the SMH!

As I see it the issues between Mr. Round and the Force are entirely distinguishable from the issues (if any) between the Force and the SMH.

Mr. Round's issues are related to contractual relationships and obligations of confidentiality arising therefrom.

The SMH issues can only arise out of any alleged defamatory statements, as the paper has no confidentiality obligations to the Force that I know of.

If the contents of the email correspondence consists of copied Force documents and those documents were accurately reported on in the SMH, I fail to see where any cause of action arises.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fulvio sammut

As I see it the issues between Mr. Round and the Force are entirely distinguishable fro the issues (if any) between the Force and the SMH.

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& how much did you charge for that advice?

Depends on how slowly he types :)

For you Gerry and Tragic, it's free!

It just appeared to me that some on this thread were confusing the SMH's involvement as a newspaper which is simply being asked to deliver up copies of documents it was given (as it is), to it being a defendant in some form of litigation.

That is all. Back in my box.

I would think that, for this case, they are after the correspondence to demonstrate Round transmitting confidential data. However, should there be any evidence of the SMH or a representative soliciting documents....

What is a Queen's Counsel - how is this different from a solicitor ?

Am making an assumption that a Queen's Counsel is expensive - and the Force can only hope for money from this case - David Round can't go to prison for this can he ?

If the SMH gave David money(pies whatever) for the information wouldn't they be culpable of encouraging him to disclose sensitive information ?