Immunity ruled out

Personal injury solicitors are preparing to open their doors for a mass of military personnel, following a High Court ruling last week that the principle of Crown immunity is incompatible with the Human Rights Act 1998.

Former Royal Navy electrical engineer Alan Robert Matthews, advised by Exeter-based Bond Pearce, argued that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) had been negligent and breached its statutory duty by leaving him open to the asbestos-related illness he contracted between 1955 and 1968.

Previous cases have failed because section 10 of the Crown Proceedings Act 1947 states that members of the armed forces who died or were injured in the course of their duties could not sue because the risk was compensated by entitlement to a war pension.

The provision was removed in 1987, but this was not retrospective.

However, Mr Justice Keith ruled that the pre-1987 immunity was incompatible with article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which provides for the right to a fair trial.

Mr Matthews' solicitor, Peter Mitchell, said the decision was long overdue.

'The fact that dockyard staff were allowed a remedy but service personnel were denied a remedy for the same injuries is clearly unfair,' he said.

'It has at last now been accepted that the provision in the war pensions scheme does not equate with the provision for personal injury compensation.' Patrick Allen, vice president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, said the human rights legislation had corrected an 'artificial dividing line' between those who were injured before 1987 and those who suffered afterwards.An MoD spokesman said it would be appealing the decision.

Paula Rohan