[miningmx.com] — THE action that British legal firm Leigh Day & Co
(LDC) intends to bring against Anglo American South Africa (AASA) on behalf of
silicosis sufferers is progressing slowly towards its first obstacle – the jurisdiction of
British courts.
AASA was ordered on Monday to hand certain documents over to LDC, which the firm
presumably plans to use in proving that the key decisions of this local subsidiary of
Anglo American are actually made in London.
If this can be proved, a case can be made in London against the South African group
under CEO Godfrey Gomwe. Anglo American, the British parent company, which was
only formed in 1999, is not being held responsible.
The potential claims for compensation for the incurable pulmonary illness silicosis are
based on alleged negligence in respect of dust control in Anglo’s gold mines prior to
1998.
The group’s gold mines were then unbundled, and whatever mines remained are now
part of AngloGold Ashanti, an independent group.
There is “at least an arguable case” that AASA is managed from London, Judge Silber
of the Queen’s Bench said yesterday.
His order came after LDC’s application for these documents was heard on June 29.
Anglo said in response to the order that it had only been instructed to make “very
limited disclosures” – considerably less than requested by LDC.
In fact, it was only found that their jurisdiction application “is not completely
hopeless”, Anglo told “Bloomberg.
Richard Meeran, the LDC lawyer in charge of the case, did not respond to questions
about the kind of documents requested from Anglo, or when his jurisdiction argument
would be submitted.
The case is currently on behalf of “more than 1,500′ potential claimants – all previous
employees of Anglo mines before 1998.
But more and more claimants are being found in South Africa, LDC said in a
statement.
The case was reported in London in September last year. Since 2004, Meeran has
been acting as a consultant for South Africa’s Legal Resources Centre for a similar
case which, however, is being prepared for the South Gauteng High Court in
Johannesburg.
The reason for making a separate case is that English courts have better procedures A third silicosis group action is being prepared in South Africa by Richard Spoor, the He argued against AngloGold Ashanti that the country’s extremely poorly functioning This case could take anything from 18 months to five years, Spoor recently told the Meeran and Spoor led two separate pioneering group actions against South African – Sake24
for large group actions and that claimants would be entitled to “compensation on a
British level’, LDC said.
lawyer who last year won a remarkable victory in the Constitutional Court for silicosis
sufferers.
and strikingly inadequate statutory compensation to mineworkers with occupational
diseases did not remove such workers’ right to compensation claims.
South African Medical Journal.
asbestos groups about a decade ago. Both negotiated settlements with different
groups.
