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W v Egdell 1990 (CA) - Confidentiality case

Court decision

An attempt to obtain an injunction failed. It was decided that Dr E's breach of confidence was less important than his duty to disclose his results. The Court made it clear that there was no doubt that Dr Egdell was under a duty of confidence, so what needed to be addressed was the breadth of that duty, i.e. did it bar disclosure? In this case, the Court accepted that the obligation of confidence was not absolute and ruled, after weighing up the public interest in maintaining confidence against the public interest favouring disclosure, in favour of the latter.

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