NZ asbestos victims fight for share of compensation

New Zealand victims will fight for a share of the record A$1.5 billion ($1.6 billion) compensation deal from James Hardie Industries to pay sufferers of asbestos disease and their families.

Under New Zealand law they cannot sue James Hardie's New Zealand subsidiaries and can only get compensation from the Accident Compensation Commission (ACC).

Asbestos was used in wallboard and other building materials in Australia, which has world's highest death rate from asbestos-related disease, mesothelioma, until it was banned in 1984.

Wellington lawyer Hazel Armstrong, who represents clients in asbestos-related cases, said today a hearing early next year would determine whether New Zealanders could sue James Hardie in Australia for the products that were used in this country by New Zealand workers.

"A hearing in New South Wales next February should make that determination," she told National Radio today.

Ms Armstrong said cases in Australia received $245,000 compensation while victims in New Zealand received a lot less.

ACC gets about 50 new claims for asbestos-related lung disease a year. The disease can take up to 20 years to manifest.

In a reserved decision in August, Wellington District Court Judge David Ongley ruled ACC must pay $98,500 after asbestos victim 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, one year after being diagnosed with asbestos-related lung cancer.

But ACC has appealed the ruling, saying lump sums could be given only to people who had been exposed or injured after April 1, 2002.

The Australian settlement, reached yesterday with James Hardie, is the biggest personal compensation claim in Australian history.

Hardie, the Australian Council of Trade Unions, and victims of asbestos-related illness have been negotiating for about three months to lock in compensation for up to 50 years for sufferers of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related cancers and diseases, which choke victims.

A New South Wales state government commissioned inquiry found in September that Hardie broke Australia's Corporations Law in 2001 when it misled the public about money set aside for asbestos disease sufferers, and made the fund seven times too small.

- NZPA