Monday January 29th 2007 

Summary:

The financial future of hundreds of former dockers suffering from asbestos related illness is hanging in the balance.

Following a High Court test case last year they won the right to seek compensation from the Government for their asbestos-related illnesses.

The High Court test case was brought by specialist law firm John Pickering and Partners LLP, on behalf of a 65-year-old former docker, Robert Thompson of Scarisbrick, near Southport, and the widow of another docker, Winifred Rice, of Ormskirk, whose husband died in 2000, aged 67 years.

But now, on Monday January 29, lawyers for the Department of Trade and Industry are attempting to reverse the high court ruling, which if successful would block the dockers' compensation claims.

Kevin Johnson, a partner at John Pickering and Partners LLP, says the DTI, which now has responsibility for the former dock labour boards, is trying to pass off the responsibility to others: "Former dock workers who become ill from asbestos want to give their families financial security. Their choice of financial security or insecurity is in the hands of the court of appeal. "

Contact with Winifred Rice and Robert Thompson can be arranged through John Pickering and Partners LLP: Telephone Kevin Johnson, partner, 0151 227 1214 mobile: 07736 670279

Full Release Follows

NEWS RELEASE

Government challenges dockers' asbestos ruling

Thursday, January 25, 2007

The department for trade and industry is challenging a high court decision that it had legal responsibilities for dockers working with asbestos under dock labour employment schemes in the 1950s and 1960s.

Lawyers for the department will ask the court of appeal next Monday, January 29, to reverse a high court ruling in May 2006 that gave former national dock labour board workers the right to sue the Government for asbestos related illnesses.

The test case last year was brought by Winifred Rice of Ormskirk, whose husband Edward died of the asbestos cancer mesothelioma in 2000, aged 67, and Robert Thompson, 65, of Scarisbrick, near Southport, who still suffers from a disabling asbestos-related illness.

Commenting on the appeal, Mrs Rice said: "The last thing Edward said before he died was that I had to go on with his case. It's so important that someone takes responsibility for what happened to him - all we wanted was for the dock board to hold their hands up and admit they should have protected him". Mr Thompson added: "The dock labour board put us in a pen like cattle, we were picked out and sent to unload the asbestos from the ships. If we refused, we were sacked. The asbestos was floating around everywhere. The dock labour board must have known they were sending us into danger."

Mrs Rice and Mr Thompson are represented by specialist law firm John Pickering and Partners LLP. Partner Kevin Johnson criticised the stance taken by the department: "the government is responsible for the dock labour boards who employed health and safety staff. Who else were the staff there to protect if not the dock labour force? It doesn't ring true for the government to argue that this was someone else's responsibility, and not theirs."

The lawyers for the DTI, which now has responsibility for the former dock labour boards, argue that the boards were not employers, but they simply hired and arranged labour for shipping and stevedoring companies, who, say the department, should bear full responsibility.

The appeal hearing takes place on Monday January 29 and Tuesday January 30. A decision is not expected until a number of weeks later. If the appeal is successful, it will block compensation claims by hundreds of former dock workers.

For further information please contact:
Kevin Johnson, partner, John Pickering and Partners, Liverpool 0151 227 1214 / 07736 670279  kj@johnpickering.co.uk

Carol Ann Hepworth, partner, John Pickering and Partners LLP, Manchester 0161 633 3337 / 07810 502088 ch@johnpickering.co.uk

James Thompson, partner, John Pickering and Partners, Oldham 0161 633 6667 / 07976 896224  jt@johnpickering.co.uk

Ruth Davies, partner, John Pickering and Partners, Halifax 01422 345535 / 07810 502084 rd@johnpickering.co.uk 

www.johnpickering.co.uk

Note for editors

Until 1967, dock workers were employed on a casual basis under the National Dock Labour Board scheme, set up by the government in the late 1940s to organise labour arrangements at ports. Many dockers unloaded raw asbestos from ships. Former dockers with asbestos illnesses have found it difficult or impossible to pursue compensation claims because of problems identifying the firms responsible for the asbestos: the workers were often transferred between different shipowning and stevedoring companies daily or weekly, many of the companies are insolvent or have ceased to exist and their insurers cannot be traced or have themselves become insolvent.