MANY York asbestos victims will be badly hit by a crucial Law Lords decision limiting rights to compensation, campaigners and lawyers warned today.

Employers' liability to compensate asbestos dust victims and their families will be drastically reduced in many cases by yesterday's judgment, said Kim Daniells, the founder of the newly-formed York Asbestos Support Group.

The Lords upheld three test appeals, effectively brought by company insurers, in which it was argued damages awards should be limited in cases involving several former employers, none of whom could be specifically blamed for the onset of the fatal asbestos-related lung disease, mesothelioma. The decision will affect compensation claims nationwide, running into millions of pounds.

Mark Dawson, head of the asbestos disease litigation team at the York-based law firm, Corries, said it would result in reduced compensation awards for 50 per cent of all claimants, and was a devastating blow to the rights of asbestos victims.

"The effect of the decision is that sufferers from mesothelioma, a devastating, fatal cancer, will have to sue all the businesses which ever exposed them to asbestos rather than just one," he said.

"This is very difficult, as many of the culpable businesses have since gone out of business or did not have insurers."

He added that, as many mesothelioma sufferers had worked for between 25 and 30 different companies, all of which would now have to be sued, the judgment would lead to more litigation going through the civil courts, which would take longer to settle.

Scores of former York carriageworks employees, and others who worked at other factories in the city, have been killed by the asbestos-related disease over the last two decades.

Kim Daniells said: "This decision will be of minimal financial benefit to the defendant companies and their insurers, but will cause maximum distress and hardship to sufferers from mesothelioma and their families."

The leading test case before the Law Lords concerned Sylvia Barker, 58, of Holywell, Flintshire, who was awarded £152,000 in the High Court three years ago after the death of her husband, Vernon, who died, aged 57, in 1996. He had worked for John Summers and Sons at the Shotton steelworks on Deeside and was exposed to asbestos while he was employed there. He was also exposed to asbestos while he had worked for another company and for short periods during 20 years of self-employment. The liabilities of Summers and Sons have been inherited by Corus UK.

Mrs Barker's damages will now be reassessed by the High Court to reflect the proportion of blame attributable to his time with Summers and Sons rather than 100 per cent liability for his illness and death.

Updated: 09:48 Thursday, May 04, 2006