Alleging that collusion between Spark and 2Degreees prejudiced its chances to acquire wireless spectrum rights, off-shore bidder Cayman Spectrum has been penalised, forced to pay 2Degrees full legal costs after abandoning attempts to get sensitive commercial information out of 2Degrees.
Part of ongoing and yet to be finalised litigation between Cayman Spectrum and Spark, 2Degrees was dragged unwilling into the fight as a non-party following allegations Spark assisted 2Degrees in its bid for wireless spectrum to the commercial disadvantage of Cayman Spectrum.
As part of pre-hearing manoeuvres, Cayman demanded disclosure of documents held by Spark. As an aside, it demanded similar disclosures from 2Degrees. This demand was abandoned by Cayman on the day of a scheduled court hearing disputing what was demanded and what was appropriate given that 2Degrees was not a party to the Cayman/Spark legal bunfight.
Justice Lang ordered Cayman pay 2Degrees full legal costs of some $47,100. 2Degrees was justified in lawyering up taking a ‘belts and braces’ approach, he said. The breadth of Cayman’s disclosure demand was forcing 2Degrees to disclose confidential and commercially sensitive information which potentially included management and board reports, budgets, predictions and strategy papers.
Cayman Spectrum (NZ) Co v. Spark New Zealand Trading Ltd – High Court (5.04.23)
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