Leigh Day and Company, the lawyers representing several thousand South African asbestosis victims, said they would take legal action against Cape Plc for non-payment of expenses.
In a statement faxed to Sapa from London on Wednesday, Richard Meeran of Leigh Day said the expenses resulted from setting up an extensive review of about 5 000 claimants’ medical records and implementing the GBP21-million (R336-million) settlement.
Lawyers would take legal action to recover GBP21 000 (about R33 6000) which had been outstanding since July, Meeran said.
He said the lawyers were unsure about Cape’s bona fides, a concern heightened by the company’s failure to honour a series of other agreements.
Leigh Day had to sue for the recovery of GBP50000 (about R800 000) in October 2001 which formed part of Cape’s share of the cost of the GBP100 000 (about R1,6-million) medical costs.
Cape paid part of the amount 10 months after the due date but GBP21 000 was still outstanding, Meeran said.
About 7500 South Africans contracted Asbestosis — also called Mesolothomia — while working at Cape’s asbestos mines in the Northern Cape in the 1970s. Hundreds have since died.
Mesolothomia clogs the lungs with asbestos fibre and the victims literally choke to death.
Although Cape and its London-based largest shareholder the Montpellier Group sold its mines in 1979, lawyers for the South African victims sought permission in July 1999 to take legal action against the company in England.
A year later, the case made international news when the British House of Lords ruled that such an action could take place.
After a protracted court battle incurring legal fees of more than GBP6-million (about R96-million) a settlement agreement by which Cape Plc would pay compensation of GBP21-million was reached.
The first tranche of GBP11-million was to be paid by June this year which has not yet been done.
Cape said it was in the process of financial restructuring which would produce the settlement money but Meeran said in his statement that it would appear that Cape had no qualms about dishonouring and even denying its commitments in order to avoid payment. – Sapa