McCreevy warns against claims as award reversed

THE Government has vowed to vigorously defend all personal injury actions after claiming victory in a Supreme Court ruling which reversed an award to an employee exposed to asbestos in Leinster House.

The ruling throws into doubt payments made to four other workers, whose cases are also under appeal to the Supreme Court. It could also affect almost 500 other claims pending against the State. Estimates last year predicted those claims could cost the taxpayer over €50m.

Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy said yesterday’s Supreme Court decision represented a major step in reversing the “compensation culture”, which had become “endemic” in recent years.

He said he was determined to ensure all arms of the State would vigorously defend the dramatically increasing number of compensation actions being taken in the courts. He said he wanted to scotch the notion that the State was a “soft touch”.

The Supreme Court decision overturned a £48,000 (€60,000) award made to Stephen Fletcher, 54, of Maplewood Road, Tallaght, Dublin. Mr Fletcher sued the Commissioners of Public Works for exposing him to asbestos dust while he removed lagging from pipes in the basement of Leinster House between 1986 and 1990.

The State denied Mr Fletcher’s claims, but in a ruling in June 2001, the High Court found that while he had suffered no physical damage to his health, he suffered from reactive anxiety neurosis over the fear of developing mesothelioma, a fatal lung cancer that results from inhaling asbestos.

Minister McCreevy described the case as one of the “so-called worried well syndrome”, where an individual develops an irrational fear of developing a disease. He said the Supreme Court decision should send out a strong signal to those who though a compensation claim against the State was “akin to approaching an ATM”.

He also hit out at elements of the legal profession, who he said were encouraging and in some cases actively soliciting people to take spurious actions against he State.

A solicitor who specialises in asbestos cases, however, said the Supreme Court decision was not a reflection on other cases pending and warned the minister’s victory speech was premature.

Dublin-based Peter McDonnell, who also represents many victims of smoking-related diseases in their challenge to the tobacco companies, said each case would be judged on its own merits.

“The condition claimed in this case is like a post traumatic stress disorder, which is a very real thing and is acknowledged by the medical profession to be so. If a doctor diagnoses the condition and the condition is the fault of someone other than the claimant, there is a case. It’s nonsensical to think every case will fall because this one did,” Mr McDonnell said.

More than 2,500 of the 6,000 schools, garda stations, military units, government offices and other public buildings managed by the Office of Public Works have so far been inspected for asbestos and the substance has been found in varying concentrations in 30% of them.

At the end of last year, some 471 compensation claims had been lodged against the State by people claiming they were exposed to the dust while working in such buildings. Some of the claimants cite physical damage and some psychological suffering.