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Court in major ruling on compensation for asbestos-related deaths |
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02 June 2008 |
The outlook for families of the thousands of workers killed by the fatal asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma will depend on the result of a nine-week high court battle which starts tomorrow.
Families of those who have already died from the disease and of those who develop it in future could be left without any compensation, depending on how the court interprets the wording of employers' insurance policies.
The outlook for families of the thousands of workers killed by the fatal asbestos-related cancer mesothelioma will depend on the result of a nine-week high court battle which starts tomorrow.
Families of those who have already died from the disease and of those who develop it in future could be left without any compensation, depending on how the court interprets the wording of employers' insurance policies.
The six test cases, which go to the high court in London tomorrow, are the most important in the current wave of litigation stemming from insurers' attempts to hold back the tide of liability claims. Some 2,000 people a year are diagnosed with mesothelioma in the UK, and actuaries believe the numbers have not yet peaked.
Asbestos was widely used in many industries between 1950 and the early 1980s and was finally banned in 1999. But mesothelioma can take 40 years or more after exposure to develop.
In the meantime, many employers have gone out of business and in some cases their insurers have become insolvent.
In one of the test cases the family of Charles O'Farrell, who died from mesothelioma in 2003, won a court judgment for |
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