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Court challenge to cancer payouts

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Court challenge to cancer payouts

A nine-week battle started this week in the High Court and will see insurance companies seek to evade liability for a large number of asbestos compensation payouts. The court will decide whether insurers are liable for damages from sufferers' first exposure to asbestos, or from when they become ill. Commenting on the insurers' legal challenge, Unite joint general secretary Derek Simpson said: 'The union is supporting this test case to protect the right of mesothelioma sufferers and their families to obtain compensation, and to make sure that insurance companies pay out on behalf of the employers they insured when workers were being negligently exposed to asbestos. " Unite is supporting the family of mesothelioma victim Charles Michael O'Farrell, who had been awarded compensation of £152,000. The insurers, however, refused to pay up and instead launched a legal challenge. Adrian Budgen of law firm Irwin Mitchell, which is also representing asbestos sufferers in the case, said: 'In essence, some insurance companies are trying to suggest that, due to the wording of the insurance policies they sold, they should not be responsible for paying any compensation for the disease, purely due to the fact that it did not develop until years after the negligent exposure occurred.' He added: "It will also leave employers who are still trading without the insurance cover they believed they had purchased over the years.'



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