British American Tobacco shredded documents in an international plot to deny justice to smokers, lawyers for a Australian lung cancer victim who won an action against the company said today.
In a landmark ruling, a Supreme Court jury in Victoria State, Australia, yesterday ordered the London-based tobacco giant's Australian arm to pay terminally ill cancer patient Mrs Rolah McCabe £263,000 compensation.
Mrs McCabe (51) is the first Australian smoker to successfully sue an international tobacco company. Australian anti-smoking activists say the ruling sets a precedent that could open the way for a class action suit on behalf of thousands of tobacco victims.
Mr Justice Geoffrey Eames said the company and its lawyers, Sydney-based Clayton Utz, had deliberately destroyed thousands of documents to subvert court processes and deny a fair trial to Mrs McCabe and other potential litigants.
On that basis, Justice Eames struck down the tobacco company's defence and ordered a jury to award damages to Mrs McCabe, who is expected to die before the end of the year.
Justice Eames said a company policy known as "document retention," which started in 1985, let the company destroy damaging documents "under the cover of an apparently innocent housekeeping arrangement".
Mr Peter Gordon, a senior partner in the law firm Slater and Gordon, which represented Mrs McCabe, claimed today the policy was "an international conspiracy by company executives and lawyers in the US, UK and Australia to destroy evidence and prevent litigants like Rolah McCabe from having a fair trial".
A spokesman for British American Tobacco in Britain, admitted documents had been destroyed, but said the company had broken no laws. "We did not know anything was going to be filed against us, so we have acted perfectly within the law," he said.
AP