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Lords slash asbestos payouts

Issue date

05 May 2006

Lords slash asbestos payouts

Thousands of widows will not receive full compensation for their husbands' deaths from asbestos-related cancer, Law Lords have ruled. The 3 May majority decision will mean there will be a compensation limit in cases involving several employers, none of whom can be blamed categorically for the onset of the fatal illness. Employers' compensation liability will be drastically reduced in many cases. Insurers had challenged a judgment favouring bereaved families and workers who contracted mesothelioma at work. Commenting on the appeal against awards to Mary Murray and Sylvia Barker, the widows of John Murray and Vernon Barker, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: 'It's shocking that the families of mesothelioma victims are to be denied compensation on a mere technicality. Despite being able to show that an employer exposed their husbands to asbestos and that the men died as a result of coming into contact with the fatal fibres, Sylvia Barker and Mary Murray and many more families in similar circumstances will now have to take action against all the employers their relatives have ever worked for.' He added: 'Today's ruling means that some mesothelioma victims and their families may only recoup a fraction of the compensation they should have received because by now some employers will have gone out of business. As it can be 40 years before this tragic disease develops, this ruling has huge implications for thousands of victims and their families.' The TUC leader added: 'The government must act immediately to change the law and ensure that this cruel and unjust decision is reversed.' Sylvia Barker, 58, said: 'I'm angry that after these people took away Vernon's life, they are adding insult to injury. They admitted that they should have protected him from asbestos. I can't understand why the House of Lords would change the law to save them paying for what they have done.' Tom Brennan, northern region secretary of GMB, which provided legal backing for Mrs Murray, said: 'We, GMB union, will do all within our power to call upon government to introduce legislation so that our members and dependants get the full compensation they deserve; this decision does not do justice to all those who have suffered incapacity, death from exposure to asbestos whilst carrying out their every day job.'

TUC news release. GMB news release. BBC News Online.
Barker (Respondent) v. Corus (UK) plc (Appellants) (formerly Barker (Respondent) v. Saint Gobain Pipelines plc (Appellants)) Murray (widow and executrix of the estate of John Lawrence Murray (deceased)) (Respondent) v. British Shipbuilders (Hydrodynamics) Limited (Appellants) and others and others (Appellants) Patterson (son and executor of the estate of J Patterson (deceased)) (Respondent) v. Smiths Dock Limited (Appellants) and others (Conjoined Appeals. Full House of Lords judgment.

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