Marco Pierre White, the TV chef, can proceed with suing a top London firm of divorce lawyers after senior judges ruled that they had a case to answer over the seizure of his private documents.

Lord Justice Ward questioned the legal advice given to the chef’s estranged wife, Mati, that she could take certain documents that she found in the matrimonial home.

The judge said that there seemed at least to be a case for the defendants, the law firm Withers, to answer.

"It is not conducive to the administration of justice that such claims are simply swept under the carpet. It is in the public interest that the bounds of proper conduct be clarified."

Mr White's sworn assertion that his wife told him that she had been told to take his documents [by the lawyers] could not be summarily dismissed, the judge added.

The chef is seeking damages for misuse of confidential or private information and wrongful interference with property.

He claims that his wife removed 42 documents for use in the proceedings to resolve the financial issues between them.

But last year Mr Justice Eady struck out the case against Withers and a partner, Marcus Dearle, who acted for Mrs White, from whom the chef was parted in Jaunary 2007.

The couple married in 2000 after seven years together and she is the mother of three of his children.

Withers, which denied that Mrs White had intercepted any mail on their instructions, argued that the case should be stopped in its tracks because the Michelin-starred restaurateur had no valid claim and had brought the case to "hassle" his wife.

Lord Justice Ward, sitting in the Court of Appeal with Lord Justice Sedley and Lord Justice Wilson, said yesterday that the claims could not be struck out and should proceed to trial.

He said that Mr Justice Eady was quite right to dismiss the claim relating to the misuse of confidential or private information.

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