Pleural plaques challenge rejected

Insurers have lost a legal bid to overturn Scottish legislation allowing pleural plaque sufferers to claim compensation for the condition.

Axa, Aviva, RSA and Zurich had mounted a joint appeal to the Court Of Session to rule illegal the Damages Act, passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2009. Insurers are preparing to appeal to the Supreme Court in London following today’s setback in the Scotland’s highest court.

The act allows sufferers of pleural plaques, which form on the lung membrane as a result of exposure to asbestos but cause no ill-effects, to claim compensation.

The legislation over-rules north of the border a House of Lords ruling that pleural plaque sufferers are not entitled to compensation.

The insurers were appealing against an earlier court verdict last year that Holyrood was correct to pass the legislation, arguing that MSPs had ignored medical opinion and that the act breaks the European Convention on Human Rights’ provisions on property rights.

ABI Director of General Insurance and Health, Nick Starling, said: “We are disappointed by this judgment. The insurers who brought this judicial review did so because there are fundamental legal principles at stake, and they remain confident that there is significant substance in their grounds for challenging the Damages Act. The insurers are therefore preparing to appeal the judgment to the Supreme Court.

“The Damages Act is fundamentally flawed as it ignores overwhelming medical evidence that pleural plaques are symptomless, and the well-established principle of negligence that compensation is payable only when there is physical harm. Insurers remain fully committed to paying compensation and pay out £200 million a year to those with asbestos-related conditions that impact on health, like mesothelioma. However, pleural plaques do not impact on quality of life and do not in themselves lead to asbestos-related conditions, such as mesothelioma”.