Can a duty of confidentiality be based on a previous or existing relationship?

We agree with counsel for the appellant that a duty of confidentiality need not be based on a previous or existing relationship. The chambers judge said much the same thing. The duty can exist outside the Martin v. MacDonald principle. For example, entrusting someone with information which is then expressly stated to be confidential might suffice. But the duty would be confined to that information. And the confiding and passage of that information would have to be proved. It could not be presumed. It might well be that harm from possessing or using the information could not be presumed either, and would have to be proved.