‘Fishing expedition’ slammed as ex-NRL player sues club…

An NRL club’s quest for documents to help it fight a case brought by an ex-player has been criticised as a “fishing expedition” as he sues for millions in damages for psychiatric injury.

Former Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs player Jackson Topine has alleged he was unlawfully punished and suffered mental injury, deprivation of liberty, humiliation, embarrassment and fear after being late for a training session.

The 23-year-old alleges he was forced to wrestle up to 35 teammates in quick succession.

Topine’s lawyers say he was directed to do so by Bulldogs high-performance manager Travis Touma as a result of being eight to 10 minutes late for a 90-minute wrestling session.

Lawyers argued over the production of subpoenaed documents as the case returned to the NSW Supreme Court on Friday.

“This amounts to a classic fishing expedition,” Topine’s barrister Peter Lange told the court.

There had been no attempt to describe the nature of the documents, he said.

The dates captured in the subpoena also predated the July 18, 2023 training session by more than two weeks.

Bulldogs barrister Vanja Bulut said the club was looking for communications that could be relevant to the conduct of Topine, his father and player agents in communicating with team officials.

“This is not a fishing expedition … the scope is rather confined,” she said.

Ms Bulut argued Topine’s lawyers had not established there was anything in the sought documents that should be kept confidential.

Other communications would not necessarily be covered by legal professional privilege and if they were it could be dealt with later, she said.

Justice David Davies said specific documents were not being requested and the subpoena instead covered any documents from during a certain period.

It was not clear if they were relevant or provided any legitimate forensic purpose, he added.

“That probably trespasses in the area of a fishing expedition,” the judge said.

Justice Davies has reserved his decision.

Topine played 16 NRL games and one for the Maori All-Stars prior to the incident.

His statement of claim said he had suffered “ongoing incapacity to play” and the club should not have stopped paying his wages in November.

Topine is pursuing up to $4 million in damages based on the average wage of players across an NRL career span.