The Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal against the order of William Davis J holding that a party to proceedings should not be subject to cross examination on a Norwich Pharmacal affidavit. Noting the lack of authority on when a court may order such cross examination, the Court of Appeal decided that the learned judge was right to find that cross examination should not be allowed where the Norwich Pharmacal Respondent was also a defendant to substantive proceedings and any cross examination may trespass on the merits of the claim. The Court of Appeal noted that English litigation does not have a pre-trial deposition process, suggesting by analogy that this is what the Claimant in the proceedings were seeking by their application.
Jeffrey Chapman QC and Samuel Ritchie appeared for the successful Respondent. The judgment can be found here.
