UK SUPREME COURT RULES ON MESOTHELIOMA CLAIMS
The UK Supreme Court in a 4 – 1 majority decision has today at last cleared up the issue of which Employer’s Liability policy is triggered to pay out compensation to victims of asbestos exposure who have developed mesothelioma a terminal cancer of the pleura.
For years a small number of insurance companies have tried to establish that it should be the employer’s liability policy that exists when symptoms occurred, which could be 40 years or so after the asbestos exposure, and even though many Defendants will, by then, have gone out of business depriving the victim of compensation.
The court decided that for the purposes of employer’s liability policies the negligent exposure of an employee to asbestos during the policy period itself had a sufficient causal link with subsequently arising mesothelioma to trigger the employers insurer’s obligation to pay.
Peter Montgomery, Partner said
“This is very welcome news for those many mesothelioma claimants whose cases have become snarled up in this litigation for many years. At last they or their families should have the comfort of knowing that their claims are now likely to succeed”.
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