Lawyers for China Light & Power deliberately withheld documents from the High Court in a high-profile case against a former representative, the Court of Appeal heard yesterday.
Lawyers acting for Michael Ford yesterday mounted a new attempt to clear his name and overturn an order that he pay damages of $321,270.
Mr Ford, a barrister, alleges he was fired after refusing to help cover up the deaths of two workers in 1993.
Sir Piers Jacobs, the former financial secretary who is now vice-chairman of China Light & Power, contributed to the misrepresentation by writing a misleading letter to the Bar Council, said Mr Ford's lawyer, Lord Thomas of Gresford, SC.
Lord Thomas yesterday said Mr Ford was in a 'position of impossible professional conflict' because he refused to withhold from coroner Warner Banks evidence into the deaths of Wong Kwong-yu, 38, and Yip Ka-pui, 40, in a massive blast at Castle Peak power station in August 1992.
'Central to the issue in this case is the conflict between a barrister's duty to the court and his duty to the client,' Lord Thomas said.