Bernie Banton, well-known for tirelessly championing the cause of Australian asbestos victims, has reached a settlement with his former employer, James Hardie Industries. Banton contracted the lung-scarring disease asbestosis from working in a Hardie asbestos insulation plant in the 1960's and 70's for which he received an $800,000 payout in 2000. Earlier this year, Banton was diagnosed with the deadly asbestos-related disease mesothelioma. He promptly filed a second claim for compensation with the New South Wales Dust Diseases Tribunal, a division of the Supreme Court, accusing Hardie of knowingly exposing its workers to unsafe levels of asbestos dust. The parties reached a confidential settlement on Thursday, just hours before several prominent witnesses were to give evidence on Banton's behalf. The victory is bittersweet, however, as the 61 year old Banton is currently hospitalized, dying from peritoneal (abdominal) mesothelioma.

Banton's claim had been considered a test case as it was the first case against Hardie to seek financial compensation as well as exemplary damages which would punish Hardie for knowingly exposing its workers to potentially fatal levels of asbestos dust. Lawyers for Hardie argued unsuccessfully for the DDT to deny Banton's exemplary damages claim on the ground that while he was entitled to make a fresh claim for economic loss, he could not raise exemplary damages again. According to Judge John O'Meally, Banton was the first plaintiff to return to the tribunal with a second suit. In addition to seeking compensatory and exemplary damages, Banton also sought aggravated damages for the stress he endured during his successful fight to force Hardie to pay billions of dollars to future victims of its asbestos building materials.

Ironically, Banton's settlement will come out of the Asbestos Injuries Compensation Fund, the very trust that Banton was instrumental in helping set up. In 2004 when it was discovered that the original trust the company had set up to compensate asbestos victims was likely to run out of money this year, Banton waged a public battle to establish a new trust which James Hardie finally set up in February 2007. Having been successful in that respect, Banton then turned his attention to lobbying the Australian government to fund a research institute for asbestos diseases at Sydney's Concord Hospital, and to subsidize the mesothlioma drug Alimta. He was successful on both counts.