Paying asbestos victims will breach our human rights, claim insurers

MORE than a thousand asbestos victims are being denied compensation by a challenge to the Supreme Court by insurers.

The Scottish Government estimates 1,350 pleural plaques sufferers are waiting for the 12 October judgment.

Many of the people waiting for payments worked for decades in manual labour, during which time they were exposed to asbestos.

Unlike mesothelioma, a cancer also related to asbestos, pleural plaques are not fatal in themselves. The plaques are dense masses caused by exposure to asbestos that develop on tissue between the lungs and the inside of the rib cage.

They can reduce lung capacity by around 40 per cent and damages quality of life.

Those entitled to compensation could receive thousands of pounds and insurers fear the total bill will run into billions.

Joan Baird, of the Clydebank Asbestos Group, lost her husband William to mesothelioma in 1996, and has spent the past 13 years campaigning for other sufferers.

She said: “For all those people waiting for a settlement, all this does is add extra stress. It does not do them any good whatsoever. The insurance company is always looking for that loophole that it can use to deprive people of their compensation. I don’t think very much of insurance companies. They could not care less about the person who has suffered. All they care about is saving money.”

Insurers Axa, Aviva, Royal & Sun Alliance and Zurich Insurance have already twice attempted to have the Damages (Asbestos-related Conditions) (Scotland) Act 2009 declared null and void, most recently losing at the Court of Session in April. The current appeal by AXA General Insurance Ltd and others argues that the Damages (Asbestos-related Conditions) (Scotland) Act 2009 (“the 2009 Act”) infringes the insurance companies’ rights under the European Convention on Human Rights.

It claims it is therefore beyond the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament. The appeal also questions whether the Court of Session has supervisory jurisdiction to review the legislation passed by the Scottish Parliament and, even if it does, whether the 2009 Act is invalid on the grounds that it is irrational to give money to people with a “benign and asymptomatic condition”.

Stuart Maxwell, SNP MSP for the West of Scotland, said: “I’ve no time or sympathy for insurance companies trying to block these payouts.”

The legal firm representing the vast majority of sufferers called on insurers to stop prolonging their pain. Laura Blane, partner at Thompsons Solicitors, who represent 90 per cent of Scotland’s pleural plaques sufferers, said: “Support in favour of the rights to compensation for sufferers is overwhelming.

“The Scottish Parliament and Government both back it and it’s time that the insurance industry stopped prolonging the victims’ suffering.”