Asbestos decision appeal

SYDNEY - A company associated with James Hardie Industries is to appeal a landmark judgment awarding a New Zealand man A$320,000 ($356,000) for exposure to Hardie's Australian-made asbestos products.

That has put a handbrake on suggestions Hardie may face a wave of claims from New Zealanders suffering lung diseases through their exposure to the lethal products.

"A gate has been opened and it has given us some hope but we are a long way from saying New Zealanders can now claim," lawyer Tanya Segelov, a partner in Sydney dust disease law firm Turner Freeman, said yesterday.

Bernard Frost, 60, a New Zealander now living in Queensland, was awarded his payout by the New South Wales Dust Diseases Tribunal last month.

He sued Hardie's former Australian subsidiary, James Hardie & Co, now known as Amaca, which is owned by an independent trust, the Medical Research and Compensation Foundation (MRCF).

Hardie has resisted claims from New Zealand, and Australian courts have held that if New Zealanders contracted diseases from Hardie asbestos-based products made in New Zealand then their only recourse in common law is with our Accident Compensation Corporation. This provides a payment of about $40 a week.

The landmark aspect of Mr Frost's case is that he successfully claimed that the asbestos-based products he was exposed to were made in New South Wales.

MRCF managing director Dennis Cooper said Amaca would appeal against the decision.

"It's a fairly complex matrix to determine where the tort occurred, and we have put it on appeal to have it tested in law," he told the Australian newspaper.

Ms Segelov said other cases involving New Zealanders her firm was handling were on hold until the case was determined by the Court of Appeal. "It could take months," she said, and other claims could attract further problems.

In Mr Frost's case Amaca agreed with his lawyers' contention that the case should be decided in Sydney as the product was made there. Ms Segelov said the company was unlikely to make such a concession in future cases.

- NZPA