Landmark Asbestos Case Begins in Britain
Beginning today, Britain’s High Court will begin hearing testimony which will determine whether insurers are liable for damages from an asbestos disease sufferer’s first exposure to asbestos or from the time they become ill.
According to a BBC News article, British unions have been backing workers, claiming insurance companies are “dodging their liabilities.” Insurers, on the other hand, believe it’s just “common sense” that they be liable from the later date.
The problem stems from the latency period connected with asbestos-related diseases. Often, mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused cancer, does not surface for 20 to 50 years after exposure to the toxic mineral.
“Asbestos-related disease is the biggest cause of work-related deaths in the UK, mainly affecting former workers in shipyards and other heavy industries,” the article states. “It is expected to cost insurers millions of pounds as cases dating back to the 1970s come to light.”
The High Court case primarily focuses on a number of insurers who are no longer accepting employers’ liability insurance business. “These companies want to clarify whether the liability insurance policies they have previously sold to employers are ‘triggered’ when employees or former employees develop the disease rather than at the time they are initially exposed to asbestos,” the article points out.
The trade unions in the UK believe that asbestos exposure is the trigger and they have argued that insurers are trying to “protect their profits at the expense of cancer sufferers.”
Attorney Peter Taylor said: “This is a struggle between those who assert that the rules of common sense and commerciality should prevail, and those who insist on the application of long-standing legal rules and canons of commercial contracts.”
But Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of a labor union known as Unite, said the industry had a duty to protect sufferers.
“What’s at stake here is millions of pounds which should be used to compensate asbestos victims and not be pocketed by the insurance industry,” he said. “It is a sickening scenario, and we will fight every step of the way to see that insurers are not allowed to pass the buck and dodge their responsibilities.”
