Widow’s court win halts company bid to slash asbestos payouts
A SYDNEY widow yesterday secured a bittersweet court victory that will help victims of asbestos-linked lung cancers. Marion Talifero celebrated the Court of Appeal’s decision to demolish building giant James Hardie’s payout plans for migrant workers.
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A SYDNEY widow yesterday secured a bittersweet court victory that will help victims of asbestos-linked lung cancers.
Marion Talifero celebrated the Court of Appeal’s decision to demolish building giant James Hardie’s bid to pay migrant workers exposed to asbestos less than Australian-born workers.
Sadly it was a year too late for her painter and decorator husband John, who died of mesothelioma on the day his case was first due in court.
“It’s a win, not for John but for everyone else who is going through this dreadful disease,” Mrs Talifero said yesterday.
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The court heard the couple arrived in Australia in 1970 with their three children as “Ten Pound Poms” from Birmingham, where Mr Talifero had worked as a Royal Navy stoker.
After a lifetime decorating Sydney homes, during which he sanded, cut and drilled James Hardie fibro sheets, Mr Talifero was diagnosed with the deadly cancer about four years ago. He died, aged 84, on October 16 last year, the day his compensation case against Amaca Pty Ltd, formerly James Hardie, was to be heard in the Dust Diseases Tribunal.
Mrs Talifero turned up at the tribunal instead and said she wanted the case to go ahead “because that is what John would have wanted”.
The tribunal found that Mr Talifero’s mesothelioma was caused by exposure to asbestos in Australia and awarded damages of $560,482.
Amaca unilaterally claimed, however, that under the terms of the Asbestos Injuries Compensation Fund Mr Talifero was only entitled to 52 per cent of that sum because he had also been exposed to asbestos while in the navy. This was despite the tribunal ruling his cancer was caused by exposure in Australia.
Facing several similar cases involving migrant workers, Amaca and the trust used it as a test case and asked the Supreme Court to clarify the situation. The court agreed with them.
Mrs Talifero and lawyers for her husband’s estate, Segelov Taylor Lawyers, challenged that decision in the Court of Appeal and yesterday won.
The appeal judges ruled that as the claim only related to exposure to asbestos in Australia the trust had to pay all of the damages.
“There are a number of cases affected by this decision,” lawyer Tanya Segelov said outside court. “Both Amaca and the trust have done everything to avoid paying Mr Talifero his full damages for the disease the court found they caused.”
Mrs Talifero said she and her husband had never heard of mesothelioma when her husband was diagnosed after finding it difficult to breathe. “He was an exceptionally good man. I miss him terribly,” she said.
James Hardie did not respond to requests for comment yesterday.