Dead litigant’s family bullied by tobacco company

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDNov 11 2010

In 2002 Jamie McCabe’s mother Rolah won a landmark legal battle against British American Tobacco and alleges that the family is still being harassed by the tobacco giant. Ms McCabe became the first Australian to successfully sue a tobacco company. She won $700,000 in compensation after Justice Geoffrey Eames, in the Victorian Supreme Court, found the tobacco company had destroyed potentially relevant documents about the damaging effects of smoking.

The judgment was overturned nine months later and Ms. McCabe’s estate was ordered to pay costs. Now the tobacco company has warned Mr. McCabe that his home may have to be sold to recover those costs.

Mr. McCabe feels the bullying has increased since his mother’s death. He said, “I am not surprised, but I am disgusted… They’re not concerned by the money. They’re just concerned about making our family go away and we're not prepared to do that.” He described the warning from the company’s lawyers, Corrs Chambers Westgarth in October that was an attempt to get his family to drop its legal fight.

They plan to continue the legal battle.

The family’s former barrister, Jack Rush, QC, said the battle over Clayton Utz documents was of “utmost importance to the administration of justice and also to the ethics and conduct of the legal profession.” Anti-tobacco campaigner and University of Sydney professor of public health Simon Chapman also added, “Tactics like this - wheeling in the heavy legal artillery - are designed to send the message that you take on big tobacco at your peril. Do you risk losing your house or do you want to take your lung cancer and go and die alone?”