Australian asbestos victims around the world have a chance at compensation now that a New Zealander has won a $320,000 asbestos payout in a Sydney court, a Sydney lawyer says.
Lawyer Tanya Segelov, a partner in dust disease law firm Turner Freeman that ran the case, today said the payment could open the door for thousands elsewhere to sue Australian asbestos suppliers.
Segelov said the 60-year-old man, who has asked to remain anonymous, worked with James Hardie products as an insulation contractor in New Zealand between 1963 and 1966.
He was diagnosed with asbestosis in 2000.
The Dust Diseases Tribunal in NSW last month ruled that Amaca, a subsidiary of Australian building products giant James Hardie, compensate the man $320,000.
Under New Zealand work compensation laws, people with asbestos-related diseases could only get payouts if they were in contact with asbestos in Australia.
"There are a lot of people in New Zealand who have been exposed to asbestos, who have been trying to find a way to sue," Segelov said.
"Many of them now living in Australia, who, when working in New Zealand, were exposed to it there."
Under New Zealand law, they don't have a claim because ACC rules that if they have cover they cannot sue in New Zealand.
Instead, under New Zealand's current compensation system, pensioners would have only been paid $40 a week from the ACC.
"But we argued that Australian law should be applied because we were suing for the manufacture of the product and that product was manufactured here in Australia," she said.
Segelov said while the ruling is not necessarily a carte blanche for anyone to sue over asbestos poisoning in Australia, it gives a reason for others around the world to make claims.
"We have always thought you can't have a fund that just cuts people outside of Australia off, because Australians have worked elsewhere," Segelov said.
"A lot of Australians were sent overseas, they did contracts in New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and other places where (James) Hardie sold its products.
"This ruling is the shot those people have been waiting for and whether they get through it or not, at least it has opened the door to justice."
