Background
The underlying dispute involved an alleged plan by the defendant to seize control of a Georgian fertilizer plant that belonged to the claimant. The Court had previously made an Extended Disclosure order under the Disclosure Pilot Scheme, and the claimant subsequently applied to vary that to include a search of emails, text messages, and WhatsApp messages on the personal mobile phones of two of the defendant’s key witnesses its former CEO (Witness One) and the former General Counsel of its Georgian subsidiary (Witness Two) and emails held by the defendant.
The defendant admitted that both witnesses had used their personal phones to discuss matters that were central to the dispute. The issue was whether the documents were within the defendant’s control and therefore subject to disclosure under the Pilot Scheme. Although the two witnesses were not party to the proceedings and their phones were private property, the defendant had a contractual relationship with Witne