Asbestos Sufferers Legal Victory- Selecting a Mesothelioma Lawyer
Law Lords Victory - Asbestos Sufferers: Insurance Pays £6-£8 Billion
ASBESTOS VICTORY - 16-05-2002
NEWS from UCATT
For immediate release: 16 May 2002
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Law Lords Victory For Asbestos Sufferers: Insurance Companies Hit For £6-£8 Billion
George Brumwell, leader of the construction workers' union UCATT and the man who took on the insurance industry by taking the landmark Fairchild asbestos case to the House of Lords said today that the Law Lords' decision to back the union by overturning earlier judgements of the High Court and Court of Appeal was 'an historic victory.'
He declared: 'This judgement will help tens of thousands of sufferers from the asbestos-related disease mesothelioma and will teach the insurance industry a lesson it will never forget.'
He continued: ' Last year 5,000 people in the UK died of asbestos-related diseases, most from mesothelioma. Those figures are rising and by 2010 some 10,000 people in Britain will die every year from exposure to asbestos, again most from mesothelioma. The High Court and Court of Appeal backed the insurance companies and held that no compensation should be paid to the victims or their families if the victims were exposed to asbestos by two or more employers. Victims would have to prove where the fatal fibres came from or they would get nothing.
'I was determined we should challenge this. Unfortunately most people who contract an asbestos-related disease are construction workers, members of UCATT, and they move from site to site.' Had the union lost it would have faced legal costs of up to £1 million.
The judgement means that:
- Compensation can now be paid to Judith Fairchild, widow of UCATT member Arthur Fairchild, in whose name the case was brought by UCATT. Arthur, from Leeds, died in 1996 after being exposed to asbestos while working for Leeds City Council and Waddingtons, the Leeds-based card company.
- Some 500 similar cases 'in the pipeline' which have been frozen pending the outcome of the Law Lords' deliberations can now proceed and compensation be paid.
- Those who fall ill with mesothelioma in coming months and years will now be able to claim compensation.
- Insurance companies are likely to have to pay out between £6 and £8 BILLION to victims in coming years Ð money they would have saved if the judgement had gone against UCATT. The three insurance companies chiefly involved are Eagle Star, Norwich Union and Iron Trades.
Said George Brumwell: 'When our case lost in the High Court and the Court of Appeal the insurance industry was congratulating itself that the 'asbestos problem' as they saw it had been put to bed. But we took the case to the Lords.
'Now we see how right we were and how wrong the courts, and the insurance industry, was. Insurance companies have to accept their responsibilities. They have been shamed by this decision.
'We are pleased for Judith Fairchild, the widow of our member, who now receives compensation, though it cannot make up for the loss of her husband, killed by asbestos through the negligence of Leeds City Council and Waddingtons.
'The judgement is indeed a landmark judgement and will change the lives of hundreds who are suffering and the thousands to follow them.'
Commented Spencer Wood of O.H.Parsons, the solicitor handling the case for UCATT: 'The union has secured a significant judgement which will change the lives of tens of thousands of people.'
Said Judith Fairchild, widow of Arthur: ' We got the right result, not only for myself but the thousands affected by this awful disease. My husband deserved to win.'
NOTE:
George Brumwell has waged a personal crusade against asbestos for 25 years. 25 years ago, as a union official in Yorkshire, he took his first asbestos case to court and realised then that it is 'a killer' Two years ago the campaign, largely led by George Brumwell, resulted in the Government banning the use of asbestos.
This year the Health and Safety Executive (George Brumwell is a Commissioner on the Health and Safety Commission) is issuing a regulation compelling all owners of buildings to carry out a survey to identify the use, and the condition, of asbestos in buildings and to take appropriate action.
With the Fairchild case the Law Lords took two others, that of 54 year old sufferer Edwin Matthews from Rochester, Kent, and the widow of Thomas Fox.
Ken Stevens
Union Communications
Tel: 020 7924 7555
Mobile: 07751 163 496
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