The Australian newspaper reports that the defendants in the court case surrounding James Hardie Industries’ asbestos compensation scandal may try to walk free on a technicality, claiming that the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) missed the deadline for the service of documents.

Lawyers for James Hardie Corporation suggested that ASIC “might not have properly served all documents on their clients within the statute of limitations.”

ASIC had waited until the day before the statute of limitations ran out to take action against the corporation and 10 former directors and executives, including former chairman Meredith Hellicar, former chief executive Peter Macdonald, and former chief financial officer Peter Shafron, noted the article.

The former directors are being tried for “failure to use due care and diligence” in connection with Hardie’s establishment of an independent asbestos compensation trust six years ago. Hardie maintained that the trust would be fully funded with $294 million and provide ample funds to compensate thousands of asbestos victims, but it was later found to have a shortfall of more than $1 billion. ASIC is asking the court to impose fines on the officers and ban them from running companies.

An ASIC spokesman, Mike van Maanen, said the ASIC rejected the defense lawyers’ claims. “We do not agree with those defendants’ position that we did not follow correct and fair procedure, and we are not troubled by it,” he said.

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