The thousands of people who suffer the malign effects of exposure to asbestos many years after the event often face particular difficulty in obtaining compensation due to the antiquity of their claims. The number of employers most people have during their working lives can also make it difficult to prove blame.

However, one High Court case, concerning a welder whose exposure went back to the 1950s and who had worked for numerous different companies, provides hope for all as a judge opened the way for his widow to seek substantial compensation following his death from asbestos-related lung cancer mesothelioma.

The man had worked for many different employers in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. There was no dispute that he had breathed in asbestos in at least some of those workplaces. Whilst he was still suffering the early symptoms of asbestosis, he had launched proceedings against two of those former employers, who agreed to an £8,850 settlement of his claim.

In 2012, he was diagnosed with mesothelioma and, following his death, his widow issued a much larger claim against a third of his former employers. In allowing her to press ahead with her claim, the Court rejected arguments that her case amounted to an abuse of process in the light of the earlier settlement. Although her claim had been lodged outside the normal time limit which applies to such cases, the Court exercised its discretion to enable the case to proceed to a full hearing.