LONDON (Reuters) - Aviva and Zurich Insurance are to appeal against a recent court ruling that insurance companies should pay compensation for exposure to asbestos.
Aviva
The high court rejected their argument that pleural plaques could not be categorised as an injury or disease and ruled that anxiety caused by the possibility of people with the scarring developing an asbestos-related disease was a basis for damages.
Aviva, which trades as Norwich Union in Britain, said it would appeal because it believed payouts for asbestos exposure were still too high, despite the court significantly reducing compensation levels and because one claimant from last month’s judgement is appealing for more damages.
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The British government, which is liable for asbestos claims involving the formerly state-run shipbuilding industry, said it would not appeal against last month’s ruling.
The high court slashed compensation levels to be awarded for exposure to asbestos. It ruled that provisional damages should be 3,500 to 4,000 pounds rather than 5,000 to 7,000 previously, and that final damages should be 6,000 to 7,000 pounds compared with the previous range of 12,500 to 20,000.
One of the claimants, Ellis Hindson, is appealing against the level of damages after being awarded a final payout of 7,000 pounds. He had applied for damages of nearly 43,000 pounds.
The use of asbestos, a cancer-causing mineral fibre that was used in a wide variety of products such as gas masks for its heat-resistant qualities, has declined sharply in Britain since the 1970s. But it takes 30 to 50 years for mesothelioma, seen as asbestos’s "signature disease", to develop.
Analysts estimate the potential cost of pleural plaque claims to the British insurance industry at between 200 million and 1.4 billion pounds over the next 35 years.
UK insurers, which have already paid around 1.5 billion pounds in UK-based claims for asbestos-related diseases, face 4 billion to 10 billion pounds of costs overall from asbestos claims over the next three decades, the UK’s actuarial profession said last year.
