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Asbestos ruling: Amendment overturns House of Lords Mesothelioma judgement and is retrospective

by Murdo Maguire — last modified 14-07-2006 11:53

The House of Lords ruling which would have deprived most of the 2,000 victims who annually develop the fatal asbestos cancer Mesothelioma of much of their compensation is likely to be overturned by legislation to be debated by the House of Commons next Monday.

The government has published an amendment to the Compensation Bill which will reverse the law thus overriding the House of Lords judgement in Barker v Corus, which effectively stripped mesothelioma victims of their legal right to full compensation by apportioning their claim amongst parties that had exposed them to asbestos

The Barker v Corus judgement stated that had there been numerous negligent defendants cases would have to be brought against each of them. Furthermore were any to have ceased to trade or have disapperared, as is the case with many such employers, their liabilities would not be shared by the remainder but their proportion would remain unpaid. This would have resulted in a huge reduction of compensation for a vast number of UK mesothelioma claimants.

The House of Lords decision, which was greeted with uproar by many asbestos victims and their families and disgust by campaigners will now be overturned and the previous situation of non-divisibility of liability will apply. Furthermore the decision will be made retrospective so as to cover cases which have come to court since the Barker judgement was handed down.

The amendment will be debated in the House of Commons on Monday 17th July.

Asbestos campaigner Laurie Kazan Allen, editor of the British Asbestos Newsletter, congratulated the government: "To my knowledge this is the first time that such quick action has been taken to deal with an injustice caused by a decision of the Law Lords," she said. "All those who acted to make this happen deserve our admiration and congratulations."

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Copy of the amendments as tabled (PDF 63Kb)

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