Asbestos victims win right to claim damages from insurers

Published on Tuesday 12 April 2011 14:06

INSURERS have lost another challenge to a law that gives victims of an asbestos-related condition the right to claim damages.

Three Court of Session judges rejected an appeal, endorsing an earlier court decision that MSPs were correct to pass the legislation.

Some of the biggest names in the insurance industry, such as AXA, opposed the Damages Act, passed at Holyrood in March 2009.

The law had already overturned a landmark House of Lords ruling that people with pleural plaques, a symptomless thickening of lung membranes, cannot claim compensation.

Pleural plaques can be caused by past exposure to asbestos but have no ill-effects and are not considered a disease in their own right.

Supporters of the law, such as Clydeside Action On Asbestos, argue that the benign scarring on lungs proves past exposure to asbestos and increases the risk of fatal disease.

Insurers warned that MSPs ignored medical opinion and had opened the "floodgates" for claims.

The industry argued that the law breaks European Convention on Human Rights provisions on property rights and constitutes unreasonable legal interference.

A summary of the court opinion rejected the overall challenge, which was brought forward on two bases.

The Lord President, Lord Eassie and Lord Hardie rejected the first challenge that the legislation was unlawful. They agreed that insurers' rights are interfered with but that the interference "was justified" overall.

During scrutiny of the legislation, the Scottish Government estimated that costs are likely to peak between 7 million and 19 million in the next decade.

But the insurance industry claimed the costs over the next 20 years will average between 76 million and 607 million.

The law was passed despite Tory opposition in a 98-16 vote at Holyrood.