Russell is the manager for Fast Campers Pty Ltd. In January 2021 he visited the offices of PWD [a large accounting partnership with several hundred staff and turnover of many millions $ per year] to collect the payroll reconciliation and BAS for Fast Campers. PWD prepares the BAS, STP payroll, and annual tax returns for Fast Campers.

Walking back to his car, which he had parked in the laneway behind the PWD office, he saw some papers in a box near PWD's rubbish bins. Upon closer inspection, many of Fast Campers' bank statements and other business documents that PWD used for the accounting work appear to have been put out in the rubbish in the laneway behind their offices. Russell put all the documents in his car and took them back to the Fast Campers office, and placed the box in a secure storeroom.

One Saturday in March 2021, Russell was working at the annual Campervan Expo, and during a quiet period he goes over to look SJ Campers display [Fast Campers' main competitor]. Russell discovers the new SJ 'Super Camper' is exactly the same design and colour as Fast Campers' new 'Soopa Campa' model, which has many innovative features. The SJ van is much cheaper than the Fast Campers van. Fast Campers set their price at $195,000 to recoup their years of research and development, while the SJ campervan is priced at just $140,000.

During the weekend Expo, SJ Campers sell hundreds of their Super Campers and Fast Campers sells only two Soopa Campas.

Russell heads back to the Fast Campers office to inspect the box of documents he found in the laneway behind PWD's offices. Fast Campers had sent their plans and design documents to PWD some months ago to make sure that all R&D tax allowances were correctly included in their accounts and tax returns.

The documents and plans for the Soopa Campa are not in the box he found. Russell calls the PWD office and Anna (a PWD partner) answers. Anna confirms that the documents are not in the files in PWD's office, and that she recalls all Fast Campers documents being disposed of some months prior. Anna insists such documents are always securely shredded. The SJ Camper head office backs onto the same laneway as PWD's office.

Required:

Identify any legal rights that may be available to the parties in the scenario given above, from both contract and tort law. Apply the legal rights you have identified to this scenario, including any remedies that may be available. Justify your arguments by citing relevant legislation and case law.