Australian asbestos case 'has implications for NZers'

A case going through the Australian court system involving a New Zealander with asbestos-related lung disease is thought to have implications for possibly hundreds of people in this country.

Sydney lawyer Graeme Little today said his client had been exposed to asbestos while working in Kawerau and Kinleith in the 1960s.

He had moved to Australia in the 1990s and been in good health until about the year 2000 when the symptoms of his lung disease, due to asbestos inhalation in the 1960s, had become apparent, Mr Little told National Radio.

His client had sued James Hardie in New South Wales where the company had its head office, alleging the company owed him a duty of care as the supplier of dangerous materials without any warning as to the dangers from their use.

The matter was a precedent-setting test case that was now before the New South Wales Court of Appeal, Mr Little said.

"We imagine there could at least be dozens, if not hundreds, (of similar cases) from the very heavy use of insulation products in the timber mills and power stations in New Zealand in the 60s, and 70s for that matter."

Wellington lawyer Hazel Armstrong, who represents clients in asbestos-related cases, told NZPA today that the NSW case was being keenly watched in this country.

"It has amazing implications if he's successful," she said.

If the NSW decision went in favour of Mr Little's client Ms Armstrong expected reaction to be swift from people affected by asbestos-related illness on this side of the Tasman.

New Zealanders should also be closely watching a case in this country in which the Accident Compensation Corporation was seeking judicial clarification of a judge's interpretation of the law.

In a reserved decision last month Wellington District Court Judge David Ongley ruled that ACC must pay almost $100,000 after Ross Lehmann's widow, Dawn Lehmann, successfully argued that qualification for lump sums applied from the date of treatment, or when a person first became ill.

Mr Lehmann was 79 when he died in November last year, a year after being diagnosed with asbestos-related lung cancer.

ACC had said lump sums could be given only to people who had been exposed or injured after April 1, 2002.

Ms Armstrong said she had been told the $98,500 cheque from ACC should be arriving in the next few days.

She expected the matter to go before the High Court in Wellington sometime this year or early next year.

Previously Ms Armstrong said there could be dozens of cases similar to Mr Lehmann's.

Mr Little said additional arguments in his client's case were to be heard on February 23 next year.

"We're hopeful they will decide that Australian law is the applicable law because that was the place of manufacture and place from where the product was dispatched," Mr Little said.

"... New Zealand law, we say, prevents action in New Zealand, but says nothing about preventing action overseas."

- NZPA