Lords To Decide Compensation for Thousands of Asbestos Sufferers
Case Enters 4th Year
Sufferer Says He Is Anxious Every Day Over Serious Asbestos Disease
Trade Unions are lobbying the House of Lords next week (25 June to 2 July) to urge the Lords to overturn the Court of Appeal’s January 2006 decision to stop compensation payments for people suffering from pleural plaques (scar tissue on the lungs) following asbestos exposure at work.
Paul Meehan, partner at Pattinson & Brewer, represents hundreds of trade union members across the UK who suffer with pleural plaques. He says: “The Court of Appeal ruling stated that pleural plaques amount to a trivial injury and do not justify legal claims, even though pleural plaques indicate asbestos exposure and alert the sufferer to the potential of developing malignant diseases including the deadly cancer mesothelioma.
“The Court of Appeal last year let down thousands of workers who have been injured through their employers’ neglect. Instead, the Court ruled in favour of employers’ and insurers’ commercial interests, despite many employers having admitted to negligently exposing workers to asbestos. For some 20 years before the Court of Appeal decision, compensation was awarded without argument.
“We say that a person exposed to asbestos at work, of which the plaques are evidence, should once again be able to claim compensation because they have been injured, as the plaques are an injury. The fact that it is benign should not be an issue.
“The person would also then carry the burden of worrying that they could develop a serious asbestos-related disease.
“It is important that the Lords overturn this decision to enable people to claim this compensation.”
Dennis Murphy, 65, from Faversham, Kent, says: “I was diagnosed with pleural plaques in 2005, having been exposed to asbestos while working for the CEGB at Deptford Power Station. I am not in pain because of the pleural plaques but literally every day I worry, knowing that I have been exposed to asbestos, that I might develop a serious illness. I know others who have developed serious asbestos related diseases.”