The appellant had brought a harassment claim against the respondent newspaper after it published articles about her house which she had painted with red and white stripes. Standard disclosure had been made by the respondent, but the appellant sought specific disclosure of 31 categories of documents. Her application was refused on 23 Mar 2018. No application for permission to appeal was made at the hearing, but later that day, the appellant wrote to the judge seeking permission. Sir David Eady, whose judicial authority was to expire at midnight by virtue of his retirement, mistakenly thought that he was obliged to deal with the application that afternoon. He purported to grant permission to appeal even though the respondent, being unaware of the application, had not provided any submissions. Once the position became clear, Sir David emailed the claimant’s solicitors to indicate that, for a number of reasons, he probably should not have granted permission to appeal.
The Court refused permission to appeal holding that Sir David Eady was right to dismiss the application for specific disclosure on 23 Mar 2018.
Sara Mansoori and Hugh Tomlinson QC were involved in this case.