A judge from New South Wales has been banned by the High Court from presiding over the British American Tobacco. This has been done on grounds on having a biased approach to the whole case.

Justice Jim Curtis presided over the case in 2006. AT that time he was able to find that British American Tobacco (BAT) and Brambles had intentionally destroyed key document s that had shown how their product causes lung cancer.

When the judge talked about his finding, the company wanted him to be disqualified based on a separate case that involved Claudie Laurie and itself. Claudie had appealed that her husband died because of smoking BAT's tobacco for as long as 25 years.

In reply, Justice Curtis refused to take a decision based on these facts and said that he would not get biased because of the previous case. At that time the NSW Court of Appeal had accepted his views.

But BAT did not agree with him and appealed against him and his decision to the High Court. At last after a long fight, the court finally accepted the appeal. And that is the reason why Justice Curtis has been asked not to hear any further proceedings of the Laurie case.