Local Asbestos Victims Under Attack from Insurers - When is the Trigger Pulled?

Tuesday 24th June 2008

The most virulent asbestos related diseases are Mesothelioma and Asbestos Related Lung Cancer.  Both diseases are a form of cancer which may only begin to develop 20 – 30 years after the exposure to asbestos fibres.  Until 2007 past employers were accustomed to refer claims to their insurers who were providing cover for employees at the time of their exposure to asbestos which could be upwards of twenty years ago. While it has often been difficult to trace those insurers, they were located in the majority of cases so that most victims’ claims were paid out. This was achieved even where the insurers themselves had gone out of business. 

This insurance regime has benefited countless Winterbothams’ Clients in the Stroud area and beyond.   One of the principle factories manufacturing asbestos in the area, was the old Fibrecrete factory at Chalford near Stroud which later became part of the Cape Group of Companies. The factory closed in the 1970s but Winterbothams managed to trace all the relevant insurers from those years. Until 2007 Winterbothams were generally successful with the vast majority of these asbestos claims.But for how much longer?? 

As from June 2008 the Insurers for Cape are one of a number of insurers that are mounting a challenge regarding the precise “trigger date” for enforcing insurance policies. There will be a series of test cases that are being heard this summer in London. Cape’s Insurers are arguing that they had been wrong to pay out claims in the past owing to a recent court ruling on the interpretation of certain Employer’s Liability policies.  The Insurers are now arguing that the victim’s injury did not occur when the victim was exposed to asbestos at the time of their employment. They are now saying the injury only occurs when the cells in the lining of the lung start to turn malignant which is usually fairly recent.  If the “trigger point” turns out to be the date when the cells turned malignant then victims are likely to find that their old employers have not been trading for many years and no longer have an insurance policy to cover the recent malignancy.     

Thus the insurer’s argument is that their old Employer’s Liability policies should no longer have to pay out victims for recent malignancy.  We do not agree with the Insurers and are continuing to fight these cases. In addition the Trade Unions are helping take on the Insurers. 

June 2008