A UK High Court has ruled South African miners can sue South African holding company Gencor and private UK company Charter Plc for payment of a settlement on asbestos claims, lawyers said on Tuesday.
Both companies previously held controlling interest in South African building materials firm Cape Plc.
Cape reached a conditional deal out of court last December to pay 21-million pounds to 7 500 South African miners who blame it for asbestos-related diseases they contracted while working in Cape’s asbestos mines in the 1970s.
Cape failed to pay the first instalment in June. It said earlier this month it was committed to honouring the settlement but it was hampered by delays in restructuring the group. Lawyers said on Monday they would take Cape back to court.
”Continuance of the litigation is not a viable option for Cape as it is doubtful whether Cape would survive a full-blown trial, let alone afford to meet any judgement,” the miners’ London-based lawyer Richard Meeran said in Tuesday’s statement.
”Gencor and Charter are being introduced into the UK litigation because of Cape’s financial predicament,” he added.
Meeran said Gencor subsidiary Gefco bought Cape’s South African asbestos mines in 1981 and that privately-owned Charter had a controlling interest in Cape from 1965 to 1996.
”The English High Court today… granted permission for the 7 500 South African asbestos claimants to join Gencor and Charter Plc as co-defendants in the case against Cape Plc,” Meeran said.
Meeran has also joined a legal challenge in South Africa, where former Gencor employees are seeking an injunction to prevent the mine holding company from unwinding its 46% stake in platinum giant Impala Platinum until it settles the claims against it.
That case will be heard in a Johannesburg court on November 18. – Reuters