| By a majority of four to one – the dissenting judge was Scottish Lord Rodger of Earlsferry – the Lords upheld an appeal by the insurance industry to change the law so that employers would in effect only have to make a small payment for exposing someone to asbestos.
Today’s ruling means that families of victims of mesothelioma, many of whom were employed at the former Caledon shipyard in Dundee and at Rosyth dockyard in Fife, could receive only a fraction of the compensation they should have received.
This is because many of the employers of victims will have gone out of business, perhaps leaving only one out of several still in business, and that employer would subsequently only have to pay a much smaller proportion of the compensation due.
The appeal was brought by the insurance industry, who argued that sufferers and their families should not be allowed to claim full compensation if the company responsible was either not insured or had since vanished.
Many former workers in heavy industry, particularly shipyards and steelmaking, were exposed to the mineral and stood the risk of developing mesothelioma some 40 years later.
There is no treatment for the cancer, which affects the membrane surrounding the lungs.
However, the Scottish Parliament may now be invited to challenge the House of Lords ruling. Lord Rodger said that no matter where an individual contracted the disease, they should receive a full pay-out, and argued that this followed a clear line starting in the Scottish courts.
Frank Maguire, solicitor advocate at Thompsons of Glasgow, who represent hundreds of asbestos victims, said the decision made no sense and the winners once again were the insurance industry.
“The Scottish judge Lord Rodger got it right when he argued that if you expose someone to the risk of contracting an asbestos-related cancer like mesothelioma then compensation should be paid in full,” he said. “It matters not whether there is another employer long gone who also exposed them.”
One course being considered is to ask the Scottish Parliament to pass a separate law that would still entitle sufferers living in Scotland to claim full compensation in light of the views expressed by Lord Rodger.
The TUC today expressed disappointment at the ruling, and general secretary Brendan Barber said it was shocking that the families were to be denied compensation on a mere technicality. Despite being able to show that men died as a result of coming into contact with asbestos, families would now have to take action against all the employers their relatives ever worked for.
“The government must act immediately to change the law and ensure that this cruel and unjust decision is reversed,” he said. |
