Court blocks access to Glenn documents

Billionaire businessman and philanthropist Sir Owen Glenn. Photo/ APN

A High Court judge has declined to let the media access documents filed in Sir Owen Glenn's case against Warriors co-owner Eric Watson.

Kea Investments, a company linked to Sir Owen, has filed a statement of claim in the High Court at Auckland against Watson-linked company EJ Group and GWNZ Investments, a joint-venture company that owns the Warriors.

In the action, Sir Owen's interests are seeking to recover more than $6 million and transfer back his company's half-share in GWNZ to Mr Watson's company.

The statement of claim is said to allege that Kea and Sir Owen have been excluded from major decisions relating to the league club since February.

While the Herald applied for the access to the full statement of claim this week, this has been declined yesterday by Justice Geoffrey Venning.

Justice Venning said the time for a defence to be filed had not elapsed and so the application was declined for now.

"A defence is required to present a balanced picture. The application may be reviewed when the defence is filed," he said.