12/01/2010 - Insurers lose asbestos legal bid
Victims of an asbestos-related condition are still able to seek damages after a judge in Scotland rejected a legal challenge from insurance firms.
Major names in the insurance sector had attempted to overturn the new law, which came into effect in Scotland last June.
The 2009 Act was passed after the House of Lords ruled sufferers of pleural plaques were not entitled to claim compensation.
Pleural plaques, which carry no symptoms, leave scarring in the layers of tissue which lie between the lungs and can be caused by exposure to asbestos.
Court of Session judge Lord Emslie's written ruling said: "There is clearly room for differences of opinion as to whether the Parliament was right to legislate in the way it did, and it remains to be seen whether the 2009 Act will prove to have adverse legal or political consequences in years to come."
But the judge said he did not accept that the insurers' complaints come anywhere near the standard of "irrationality" needed to invalidate an Act of the Scottish Parliament.
Copyright © Press Association 2010
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