Three tobacco companies secured High Court orders yesterday permitting the inspection and copying of the medical records of a number of smokers who are suing them for damages.
Mr Justice Butler also gave the companies an order directing the smokers to disclose the names and addresses of all medical personnel and institutions attended over the years. Solicitors acting for the smokers must do all in their power to ensure the medical records were preserved, he stipulated.
He granted a stay on his order to October 8th to facilitate any Supreme Court appeal.
More than 200 actions for damages alleging negligence and breach of statutory duty by the cigarette companies are contemplated but are unlikely to come before the courts for some time. All the smokers are claiming their health has been damaged by tobacco-smoking related injury or injuries.
Ruling on the companies' application, Mr Justice Butler said, apart from the normal dangers caused by the passage of time, there was a real risk some of the records and documents might be destroyed.
He noted solicitors acting for some 50 plaintiffs had not yet obtained the necessary signed authority to secure their medical records and to identify medical personnel who attended them. Those documents should be preserved, and this was best done through their being identified and collected as soon as possible.
However, the judge said, the tobacco companies should not be given complete control of this process. Each side should nominate one practising solicitor to inspect and make copies of the lifetime records.
The ruling means Benson and Hedges Ltd, Old Bond Street, London, is entitled to inspect the medical records of Ms Marie Callery, of Mullingar Road, Castlepollard, Co Westmeath, and of Mr James Morris, Ballyrichard, Midleton, Co Cork. John Player and P.J. Carroll also secured orders relating to the records of Mr John Fitzgerald, Pinebrook Vale, Clonsilla, Dublin.
All parties welcomed the High Court judgment.
Mr Peter McDonnell, solicitor for the plaintiffs, said: "The tobacco industry had not been granted the unsupervised, unrestricted access to personal records which they sought." Mr McDonnell added: "We decided to fight this matter on principle and law, and as an indication that we will be fighting the industry every step of the way."
Mr Phil Mason, managing director, P.J. Carroll and Co Ltd, said the company took the case "to ensure that these records were preserved and not destroyed whether by inadvertence or through the implementation of a document policy (based, for instance, on the lapse of time)".
Gallaher's head of corporate affairs, Mr Ian Birks, said: "We are satisfied. Our aim in bringing the application was to ensure the preservation of critical evidence for use by the court and all the parties. The judge has made an order which is designed to achieve this."