Following on from Friday’s blog, we here at Camps were pleased to hear that the High Court in London had ruled in favour of asbestos-related disease sufferers in six test cases against insurance companies who were refusing to pay up. Asbestos-related disease is the biggest cause of work-related deaths in the UK, so it is not surprising that Friday’s decision has been closely followed by both the national media and the legal profession.
The central issue, as we mentioned last week, was whether individuals could make a claim on the insurance policy that their insurers had in place at the time of their exposure to asbestos, or the policy the had at the time an asbestos related disease first developed. The gap between exposure to asbestos and developing symptoms of an asbestos-related disease can vary widely, even up to several decades, in the case of mesothelioma. Cases are still coming to court where the initial asbestos exposure took place in the 1970’s and has only just come to light.
By proposing the change in the way asbestos-related disease claims were conducted, insurance companies had been hoping to save themselves some of the tens of millions of pounds paid out every year to sufferers. Many modern business insurance policies include specific exemptions for asbestos, which would have left victims unable to claim on the insurance policy, leaving them only the option of suing their employer directly. Where a significant amount of time had passed, there was a danger that the victim’s original employer may have gone out of business, particularly as those most likely to have been exposed worked in shipbuilding and heavy industry. This would have left those people with no practical means of getting compensation for their illness.
The judgement defeating this proposal has been hailed by asbestos-related disease sufferers, their families, and trades unions as a victory for common sense. The general secretary of the Unite trade union, Derek Simpson told the media that: “This is a hugely important victory for the victims of the deadly dust and their families.”
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