Supreme Court of Canada: In the present case, the Supreme Court examined the scope of settlement privilege that may be offered to the settling parties. This is a case of multi – party litigation; wherein the plaintiff sued a number of defendants for the damage caused. Later, he entered into Pierringer Agreements with a few defendants which allowed these defendants to settle with the plaintiffs, leaving the other defendants liable only for the loss caused by them. The other defendants sought for disclosure of settlement amounts before trial. While, the trial judge dismissed such application, the Court of Appeal ordered for disclosure of these amounts, and hence this appeal. The question that arose for consideration was whether the settlement amounts can be disclosed or are they covered under the settlement privilege. The Supreme Court held that settlement privilege protects all sorts of negotiations that take place in an effort to reach to a settlement whether a settlement is successful or not. And since the settlement amount is an essential ingredient of such negotiations, it must be protected by this privilege. The Court also ensured that there is no competing public interest that could outweigh the public interest in a settlement privilege. The court opined that since the non – settling defendants were provided with all the relevant documents of the Pierringer Agreement and were charged to be liable only for their share of the damage caused; there was no prejudice created by withholding the settlement amounts. Accordingly, the court held that it would be covered under the settlement privilege and non disclosure of settlement amounts is apt. [Sable Offshore Energy Inc. v. Ameron International Corp., 2013 SCC 37; delivered on 26.6.2013.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Aug 2013 02:05:45 +0000
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