Hundreds of victims suffering from mesothelioma are taking their case to the Supreme Court on Monday 5 December when the latest attempt by insurers to avoid paying compensation will be considered.

In arguably the most important test case ever heard about mesothelioma claims, the court will hear an appeal by Independent Insurance Company (in provisional liquidation) who have refused to pay our client, Joan Eddleston, the compensation she was awarded by a judge many years ago.

Independent Insurance Company have tried to persuade the High Court, then the Court of Appeal and now the Supreme Court that the wording of the insurance policy they provided to Premier Construction does not cover workers exposed to asbestos who later suffer asbestos related illnesses.

Joan’s husband, Arthur, worked for Premier Construction for 20 years from the mid 1970s and as a result of his exposure to asbestos with Premier he died of mesothelioma aged just 58. Joan won her claim before the High Court and the Court of Appeal but the insurers have still refused to pay.

Joan said, “I am continuing to fight to achieve justice for Arthur. I am disappointed that insurance companies are trying to use a legal loophole to stop these claims and save themselves millions of pounds.”

Joan has led the fight in the test case against Independent Insurance Company.

Carolann Hepworth, specialist solicitor at John Pickering and Partners LLP said, “For the last five years a number of insurers have refused to pay compensation to mesothelioma victims and their families. Although the insurance companies involved took tens of thousands of pounds in premiums from companies they insured, they decided in 2006 to try to manipulate the words used in the policies issued to defeat these claims. If they are successful it will leave many mesothelioma victims and their families uncompensated”.

Notes to the Editor

Background: Every year, there are more than 2000 cases of mesothelioma in the UK, the exposure in the UK being comparatively high because we imported so much brown asbestos.  Much of the exposure to asbestos took place more than 40 years ago and employers have gone out of business. If we can trace the insurance Company on risk at the time, our clients have received compensation from the Insurance Company.  This decision means that many people will not receive any compensation.

Further information:

Notes 

We are a specialist personal injury law firm.  We have been handling claims for industrial disease for over 30 years.  Most of our work involves acting for asbestos disease victims. 

We only act for the sufferers of asbestos diseases and never act for the organisations that caused the asbestos exposure or their insurers. 

We have an ethical approach and pledge to donate 10% of our net profits every year to good causes that help asbestos sufferers.

We have also been involved in most of the landmark judgments that shape this area of law.  Find out more about us or find out about our reported cases.  We are on the panels of several asbestos support groups and are ranked highly by legal guides.

John Pickering and Partners LLP is a niche legal practice that has represented Claimants in the leading asbestos "test cases" in the last ten years. The firm represented Sylvia Barker in Barker v Corus (UK) Plc, a case that highlighted the legal tactics of employers and insurers trying to cut back their compensation liabilities to mesothelioma sufferers, and which prompted the amendment of the Compensation Act 2006 to ensure full compensation for mesothelioma claims. The firm represented two of the three Claimants in the Fairchild appeal, in which the insurance industry tried unsuccessfully to block compensation altogether for mesothelioma sufferers unable to identify which of two or more sources of asbestos exposure had caused their illness.

The firm represented Alice Jefferson, a mesothelioma sufferer, whose illness and compensation claim against Cape Asbestos were featured in the important documentary "Alice: A Fight For Life."   Shown by Yorkshire Television in July 1982, the programme was an important catalyst for legal change and public awareness of the plight of mesothelioma and other asbestos disease sufferers and a prompt for important legal reform.

Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that affects the lining of certain bodily organs.  It most commonly affects the lining of the lungs (the pleura) but it can affect other areas including organs in the abdominal cavity (the peritoneum).

According to the British Lung Foundation, more than 2,000 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma every year in the UK and there is one mesothelioma death every five hours. The number of deaths from mesothelioma increased from 153 in 1968 to 1,969 in 2004 and is expected to peak at 2,450 between 2011 and 2015.

The British Lung Foundation, supported by John Pickering and Partners LLP, launched the first Action Mesothelioma Day on 27th February 2006, to raise awareness about mesothelioma, to improve the treatment and care of mesothelioma patients, and to lobby for better funding for research into mesothelioma and for the protection and education of people working with asbestos.