She won her fight against the Independent Commission Against Corruption. Now the Obeid family want to use Crown prosecutor Margaret Cunneen as a weapon in their own battle.
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Eddie Obeid and three of the disgraced former NSW Labor minister's five sons are suing the ICAC for damages over a landmark inquiry into a coal tenement created over the family's Bylong Valley farm.
They allege the former head of the commission, David Ipp, QC, and counsel assisting the inquiry, Sydney silk Geoffrey Watson, SC, among others, engaged in "misfeasance in public office" in their pursuit of the family.
The Obeids' silk, Robert Newlinds, SC, foreshadowed on Thursday that one of the witnesses they may seek to call is Ms Cunneen, SC, who successfully challenged the watchdog's power this year to investigate her over allegations of perverting the course of justice.
Her evidence could be relevant to whether the ICAC had a tendency to "knowingly ignore the law in the execution of search warrants", Mr Newlinds told the court.
"I have spoken to Ms Cunneen," Mr Newlinds said. "I have no doubt that this is the evidence she would give."
But he said the prosecutor might want to "come along under a subpoena", meaning she would be compelled to give evidence, rather than appearing voluntarily.
Justice David Davies said it was "somewhat unusual" for tendency evidence to be raised in a civil rather than criminal case.
The Obeids allege the ICAC falsely claimed to have obtained damning evidence against them during a raid on the family's Birkenhead Point offices. The watchdog has denied the claim.
Allegations the commission failed to comply with search warrant procedures in the ill-fated Cunneen inquiry have also surfaced in the media. ICAC Inspector David Levine, QC, is expected to deliver a report about that inquiry to NSW Parliament on Friday.
The Supreme Court battle is just one front in an escalating legal war between the watchdog and high-profile targets of its investigations.
About 20 lawyers appeared in the court on Thursday as the parties thrashed out preliminary issues, including questions about which documents the watchdog should be compelled to provide to the Obeids to use in their case.
Mr Newlinds paraphrased the ICAC's response to a request for documents as: "Ha ha, you can't have any discovery because of the secrecy provisions [in the ICAC Act]."
Ms Cunneen was investigated by the ICAC over allegations that she advised her eldest son Stephen Wyllie's girlfriend, Sophia Tilley, to feign chest pains to avoid a police breath test after a car crash. She denied the claims.
Mr Newlinds said he had not spoken to Ms Tilley "but I will".
The High Court ruled the Cunneen investigation was outside the watchdog's powers. NSW Solicitor-General Michael Sexton, SC, subsequently advised that Ms Cunneen should not be charged over the allegations raised by the ICAC.
