Lower Court Judgment
10/12/2010 Supreme Court of New South Wales (Court of Appeal)
(Beazley JA, Giles JA, Basten JA)
Catchwords
Torts — Negligence — Causation — Dust diseases — Respondent ("Booth") suffers from mesothelioma contracted from asbestos inhalation in four domestic and employment periods — Third and fourth periods of exposure occurred while Booth worked with brake linings containing asbestos manufactured by applicants — Trial judge found each applicant responsible for 70 per cent of asbestos fibre to which Booth exposed in third and fourth periods — Evidence indicated incidence of mesothelioma increases in proportion to increased exposure to asbestos — Whether causation in asbestos cases can be established by reference to increased risk of developing mesothelioma.
Torts — Negligence — Causation — Dust diseases — Evidence — Expert evidence — Experts for Booth gave evidence that all exposure to asbestos of the type found in applicants' brake linings, other than trivial or minimal exposure, materially contributed to Booth's mesothelioma — Whether sufficient evidence for conclusion that each exposure to asbestos a contributory cause of the development of mesothelioma.
10/06/2011 Hearing (SLA, Sydney)
24/06/2011 Notice of appeal
08/07/2011 Written submissions (Appellant - Amaca)
08/07/2011 Written submissions (Appellant - Amaba)
08/07/2011 Chronology (Appellants - Amaca)
27/07/2011 Written submissions (First Respondent - Amaca)
27/07/2011 Written submissions (First Respondent - Amaba)
05/08/2011 Reply (Amaca)
05/08/2011 Reply (Amaba)
04/10/2011 Hearing (Full Court, Canberra)
05/10/2011 Hearing (Full Court, Canberra)
14/12/2011 Judgment (Judgment summary)