Asbestos ruling revolt

Claimant lawyers this week vowed to continue their battle over liability in asbestos cases, after the Court of Appeal delivered a ruling branded 'a scandal' by personal injury specialists but welcomed by insurance solicitors.In three linked appeals - where one claimant was represented by national firm Thompsons and two others by Manchester firm John Pickering & Partners - the court said that where victims of mesothelioma, a type of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos fibres, have been exposed by more than one organisation, and it cannot be proved which is responsible for causing the disease, neither will be held liable.

The head of Thompsons' national asbestos team, Ian McFall, said the firm would now be petitioning to appeal to the House of Lords.

'Is it right that employers admit blame, kill people as a result and the victim and their family gets nothing?' he demanded.Patrick Walsh of John Pickering said: 'The decision threatens to deny the majority of victims of mesothelioma compensation through the civil courts because they cannot prove the impossible, precisely which asbestos fibre or fibres caused their disease to develop.' Frances McCarthy, president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, said: 'It's an absolute scandal that employers and their insurers have been handed a loophole which will allow them to avoid accountability,' she argued.But Chris Phillips, head of insurance litigation at Manchester firm Halliwell Landau, which acted for the defendants in the lead case, said legal procedures had been biased in favour of claimants, and argued that the decision was fair and far-reaching.

Paula Rohan