Subscribe to IMG Medico-Legal News by Email
Insurance companies have failed in a legal bid to scrap the right of people in Scotland to claim damages for an asbestos-related condition.
The UK Supreme Court dismissed their case, upholding the right of people with pleural plaques to claim compensation.
Insurers earlier lost a bid to overturn the laws at the Court of Session.
Most Scots affected by pleural plaques previously worked in heavy industry, such as shipbuilding.
Pleural plaques are not themselves a disease and have no symptoms, but the thickening of lung membranes is an indicator of past exposure to asbestos.
However, the Scottish government disagreed, and MSPs passed the Damages (Asbestos-related Conditions)(Scotland) Act in 2009.
Ministers argued pleural plaques could give rise to more serious conditions, like lung cancer, mesothelioma or asbestosis.
It allows claims to be made with the likely cost estimated at between £7m and £9m.
But insurance firms have vigorously attacked the legislation, alleging it infringes against human rights laws.
The industry argued that it broke European Convention on Human Rights provisions on property rights and constitutes unreasonable legal interference.
But Supreme Court justices in London dismissed an appeal by several insurance companies – including AXA – against an April decision by Court of Session judges in Scotland, who rejected argument that the legislation was unlawful.
The Supreme Court ruled that it could not be said that the, “judgment of the Scottish Parliament was without reasonable foundation”.
Medico Legal News Source: BBC
Subscribe to IMG Medico-Legal News by Email
