Judge certifies class action suit on flawed cancer tests

A Newfoundland Supreme Court justice has certified a class action suit brought on by faulty tests involving hundreds of breast cancer patients.

Justice Carl Thompson announced the decision Mondayat court in St. John's, allowing lawyers to bring a suit involving about 100 patients together as a group, rather than litigating separately against the Eastern Health regional authority.

Thompson finished hearing a three-day application on certification just last Friday.

While delivering his judgment orally, he said he moved quickly out of concern that some of the patients involved in the suit were ill.

"It's just a wonderful day for us," said patient Patricia Sweeney. "Today, this is for all of us, all our good friends who have passed on."

Lawyer Ches Crosbie, who filed the application last year seeking unspecified damages, said he saw Thompson's decision as a victory.

Crosbie said there is a possibility an out-of-court settlement could be reached before the matter is heard in court again.

"I think what we're going to see is that this matter will come to a head much earlier than people would think," Crosbie said.

Minnie Hoyles, one of the women who joined the suit, was relieved by the decision.

"I'm very happy that we don't have to go 20 years trying to get justice … It would have been very devastating had he ruled any other way," she said.

"If we all ended up in the court [individually], we would never, ever see justice at all. There's people dying every day from this disease."

Eastern Health had argued that the cases were different enough in nature that they ought to be heard separately in the courts.

The Newfoundland and Labrador government last week ordered a judicial inquiry into how hormone receptor tests at Eastern Healthwere flawed over an eight-year period.

The tests are done to determine what sort of treatment a breast cancer patient will receive.

An affidavit filed with Crosbie's application, and signed by an Eastern Health manager, showed that of 763 patients who had tested negativeas candidates for anti-hormonal therapies, 317 turned out to have been given wrong results.

That error rate— of 42 per cent— was several times higher than the 10 to 15 per cent range that Eastern Health officials suggested in 2006, even though they knew of the results outlined in the affidavit.

Eastern Health officials apologized earlier this month for withholding information about problems it had had with its lab. The authority, which sent samples to Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto for retesting, saidthose problems have been resolved.

Both Sweeney and Hoyles said their focus now is turning to the pending judicial inquiry.

"The inquiry definitely will be the most important thing— probably more important to me than money ever could be," said Hoyles.