Court of Appeal finds in favour of mesothelioma widow
23 November 2007
A significant point of legal principle was upheld yesterday when the Court of Appeal found in favour of widow Angela Cox who lost her husband Derek in 2002 to asbestos related disease.
The Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal brought by Rolls Royce Industrial Power (India) Limited against a judgment in favour of Mrs Angela Cox. The long legal battle began in 2005 when Mrs Cox sued the company on behalf of the estate of her deceased husband, Derek, who in 2002 died prematurely from malignant mesothelioma, a condition caused by exposure to asbestos.
Mr Cox, like thousands of others in the late 1960s, had worked on short term contracts removing asbestos lagging from boilers. One of his employers was International Combustion Limited (since taken over by Rolls Royce)
At trial in February of this year, a Judge found that the company had had been wrongly exposed Mr Cox to injurious levels of asbestos dust and fibre for long enough to cause an increased risk in his developing malignant mesothelioma. The basis for the appeal was that Mrs Cox should not be compensated for her loss because she could not prove for precisely how long her husband had been put at risk.
The Court of Appeal today rejected the company's argument, ruling that International Combustion should have been aware of the risk to its workers and should have done more to protect them. A relieved Mrs Cox said simply ‘I feel that my husband had now received justice. I hope that Derek's case has struck a blow for the rights of the thousands of workers wrongfully exposed to asbestos through not fault of their own ‘
Mrs Cox's lawyer , Isobel Lovett of Sheffield firm, Ashton Morton Slack LLP commented,
"This was a deliberate attempt from within the industry to reduce the cost of asbestos compensation. This company did not take care of its workers forty years ago and it wanted families like the Coxes to pay the price for that negligence decades later. Negligent employers should be made to pay for the legacy of the asbestos disease they cause. The case will hopefully provide a reminder that even today more can be done to diminish the dangers of working with asbestos."
In spite of the Appellant's attempts to deny her compensation, the Court has rightly decided that she is entitled to compensation originally awarded in February this year. Her struggle is now at an end. Mr Cox has shown great courage in taking on big business interests. This is a great day for her, for others in her position and for the British justice system."
Counsel in the case was provided by the renouned barrister Peter Hodson, Occupational Diseases specalist from Garden Court North Chambers.