Judges set to rule on asbestos cases

The Law Lords will consider three test cases of a man who has mesothelioma, cancer which attacks the lining of the lung, and two widows whose husbands died of the disease.

Their decision could potentially affect thousands of people over the next 20 years resulting in millions in compensation.

The Court of Appeal previously upheld a High Court judgment that compensation could not be paid in a case where a worker was exposed to the deadly dust by more than one employer.

The cases centres on the principal of the ‘fatal fibre’ - in theory, it is possible that cancer could have been caused by just one speck or fibre of asbestos dust.

If a worker was exposed to asbestos, the defending companies’ insurers argue it is not possible to say which was the source of the fatal fibre.

The previous two courts have considered the case of former council worker, Eric Fairchild, who died from mesothelioma in 1996, aged 60.

Mr Fairchild was exposed to substantial quantities of asbestos when he worked for Leeds City Council in the early 1960s and again six years later when he took up a job with a company at another building in the city.

The Law Lords will also hear the cases of Doreen Fox, whose husband died from mesothelioma, and Eddy Matthews, who is seriously ill with the cancer.

He was awarded 155,000 compensation last July, but his former employers appealed and won, so he has not yet seen any of the money. Mesothelioma attacks the lining of the lung or abdomen. It can cause a great deal of pain, and responds poorly to surgery and therapies.

Around 90 per cent of cases occur in people who have experienced "significant exposure" to asbestos.

It develops at least 20 years after exposure and many patients die within two to three years of being diagnosed.

At least 2,000 people are diagnosed with the cancer each year, according to the British Thoracic Society, but numbers are expected to rise until 2020, because of the time-lag between exposure and disease.

Most victims of illnesses associated with the deadly dust come from areas linked to heavy industries such as shipbuilding and engineering.

Mrs Fairchild told BBC Online that she hoping the appeal court’s decision would be overturned because otherwise "no-one in the future is going to be able to gain any compensation from their employers".

But Chris Phillips, from solicitors Halliwell Landau, who is representing the insurers in Mrs Fairchild’s case, said it was not possible to say where the "fatal fibre" that caused the cancer came from.