Friday, November 21, 2008Victims of asbestos-related cancer today won an important High Court victory against insurers.
For many years, insurers paid compensation for the fatal lung disease mesothelioma on the basis that their liability arose at the time when a worker was exposed to asbestos dust.
But, two years ago, the Court of Appeal ruled in a different legal context that liability was "triggered" when the disease actually developed - sometimes after 40 years or more - rather than at the time of exposure.
As a result, insurers stopped paying on a "time of exposure" basis and argued they were not liable because the risk cover they provided 40 years ago was no longer in force.
This summer, during a nine-week legal battle, Mr Justice Burton was asked by employees and employers to rule that the appeal court decision - made in a case of occupiers' rather than employers' liability insurance - should not be applied generally.
Arguing that liability arose at the time of exposure to asbestos, Colin Wynter QC, for three families battling to recover compensation from insurers, said: "It cannot be right to say that a man injured today is not actually injured until tomorrow."
Mr Wynter also represented employers who, although still solvent, faced the threat of compensation claims if their insurance cover was held not to have applied at the time of their workers' exposure to asbestos.
Today, the judge gave a ruling on six test cases which means that employees can claim against the employers' historic insurers even though there is no exact proof of when life-threatening tumours develop.
He said: "For the purposes of these policies, injury is sustained when it is caused and disease is contracted when it is caused, and the policies fall to be so construed."
Thousands of families of workers who have already died and others who may contract the disease in the future were awaiting the outcome of the case.
After the ruling, Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of trade union Unite said: "This is a hugely important victory for the victims of the deadly dust and for their families.
"Having to suffer or watch your relatives suffer from a slow and painful death is horrific.
"Thousands of men and women across the UK have been negligently exposed to asbestos by their employers, but insurers have tried and failed to use legal technicalities to escape their responsibility to pay compensation under the policies they sold to employers.
"They sought to avoid their liabilities while pocketing the money."
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