Appeal court overturns £82,000 asbestos damages award

The Court of Appeal has reversed a High Court decision to award damages of £82,000 to a woman who developed an asbestos-related disease years after she had washed her husband's contaminated work clothes.

The two to one majority ruling by the Court of Appeal could affect the outcome of many hundreds of other similar cases.

Teresa Maguire brought the case after she developed the asbestos-related disease mesothelioma. Mrs Maguire died last May and her husband subsequently fought the case, which sought damages from his former employer Harland & Wolff.

In the 1960s, Mr Maguire had been employed as a boilermaker in the Liverpool shipyard owned by Harland and Wolff. His wife had regularly washed his asbestos contaminated work wear.

The High Court finding, though at odds with a previous finding in a case brought against a Tyneside engineering company, awarded Mrs Maguire £82,000 in damages.

However, the Court of Appeal overturned this decision, finding that, given the state of knowledge about asbestos at the time, the employer could not have reasonably foreseen the hazard posed by asbestos nor the associated risk of developing disease on secondary exposure. Mr Maguire worked for the company between 1961 and 1965. Lord Justice Judge said it had not been until late 1965 that "it began to be appreciated that there could be no safe or permissible level of exposure, direct or indirect, to asbestos dust".

The case underscores the precedent set in the earlier case. It is thought that thousands of similar claims against employers could have been brought to court if the Court of Appeal had upheld the High Court decision to award damages.

While lawyers acting for Mrs Maguire were not granted leave to appeal to the House of Lords, it would still be possible for a direct petition to the law lords.

(SP/MB)