TOPEKA – The Kansas Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a Kansas City Company that was involved in legal action by Superior Boiler Works.

Superior took legal action against Ferris Kimball Company of Kansas City after the Hutchinson company was involved in a lawsuit regarding the use of asbestos in their products that were supplied by Ferris Kimball.

They accused the company of destroying vital evidence in the asbestos case because it contained information Superior felt was necessary in their defense. The records dating back to 1967 were destroyed by Ferris Kimball on the advice of legal counsel in 2007. It was shortly after that that Superior sought the records.

After much legal action the court ruled that the destruction of the records was a natural order of business and not intended to hide any wrongdoing, and that Ferris Kimball was not obligated to keep such records. The matter went before the court of appeals and eventually up to the supreme court where they upheld the lower courts decision.

The court said that although there was some dispute over the knowledge of the pending litigation against Superior by Ferris Kimball that fact that there was no contractual agreement between the two company’s to hold the records cleared them in the law suit.