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Further to Charles Mitchell's March posting about Daraydan Holdings Ltd v Solland International Ltd, Halifax BS v Thomas was also waved aside in Murad v Al Saraj [2004] EWHC 1235. Robustly preferring Goff & Jones 6 ed to the Court of Appeal, Etherton J held that it was now well-established that there could be disgorgement (account of profits) for the tort of deceit.

In other news, RDG members may recall that the Canadian federal government sued US tobacco companies in the US under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, seeking profits of smuggling tobacco into Canada. The claim failed because of the rule against enforcing foreign tax laws. Vaughan Black has written an article about it which is probably appearing very soon (Vaughan?). Meanwhile, this week's Economist online notes that although the tobacco companies reached a big settlement ($246 billion) with US state governments regarding health care costs a few years ago, the US federal government is now suing them all under RICO for conspiring to mislead the public since 1953 regarding the risks of smoking. It seeks disgorgement of $280 billion of profits. See

http://www.economist.com/business/ displayStory.cfm?story_id=3203157

Lionel

Lionel Smith
James McGill Professor of Law, Faculty of Law, McGill University
2004-5: Visiting Researcher, Swiss Institute of Comparative Law,
CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
Tel.: +41 21 692 4972
Fax: +41 21 692 4949