Ruling a blow for asbestos victims compensation claims
4 May 2006
A LANCASHIRE law firm warned victims of asbestos related diseases they may not receive full compensation following a ruling by the Law Lords in a case yesterday.
The ruling means that widows may not receive full compensation for their husbands’ deaths from asbestos related diseases in addition to the thousands of people suffering from asbestos related disease themselves potentially missing out on much needed compensation.
The Law Lords ruled that compensation will be limited against each individual employer in cases involving several employers where none can be specifically blamed for the onset of the illness.
The Lords have decided that an employer’s liability should reflect the extent to which the employer contributed to an employee’s exposure to asbestos dust. This means that in many cases employers’ compensation liability will be significantly reduced.
The move comes after insurers challenged a judgment favouring bereaved families and workers who had contracted mesothelioma, a form of cancer that attacks the lungs which is caused by exposure to asbestos.
Jim Kerr, an occupational disease specialist at MWR solicitors – which represents hundreds of workers across the North West suffering from illness due to asbestos - commented:
“Given the difficulties which can often be encountered tracing employers and their insurers, the recent House of Lords judgment is unfortunately likely to lead to those suffering from asbestos related mesothelioma, who have been employed by more than one employer, missing out on much needed compensation.
“Negligent employers should compensate the workers they have endangered.
“This ruling could have an influence on other numerous cases where employees have contracted diseases following exposure to asbestos in the workplace and may even have further repercussions in other areas of personal injury”
The successful appeal by insurers may affect claims worth millions of pounds involving asbestos cases.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
In 2002 Law Lords ruled that an employer who negligently exposed a worker to asbestos could be held 100 per cent liable - even if the employee had worked for several companies and it could not be proved which of them had caused the illness.
About 1,900 people die in the UK each year from mesothelioma.
The appeal raised the question of whether compensation should be denied altogether when a mesothelioma sufferer was in contact with asbestos during a period of self-employment, even if they were also exposed to asbestos in a different period as an employee.
The test case of Sylvia Barker, 58, of Holywell, Flintshire, was at the centre of the dispute.
The widow was awarded £152,000 in the High Court three years ago for the death of her husband, Vernon, who died aged 57, in 1996.
Mr Barker had worked for John Summers and Sons at the Shotton steelworks on Deeside.
He had been exposed to asbestos while he was employed there as well as for another company and for short periods during 20 years of self-employment.
Her damages will now be reassessed by the High Court to reflect the proportion of blame attributable to his time with Summers rather than 100 per cent liability for his illness and death.
