A NEWPORT grandfather who suffers from a condition caused by exposure to asbestos spoke of his disappointment following a court ruling.

Appeal Court judges reversed the findings of a High Court judge which would have allowed people with pleural plaque to claim damages. While the decision halted a possible claim of £1 billion facing the insurance industry, the judges agreed the controversial case could now go the House of Lords.

William Scarlett, 66, was not one of the six test cases before the Appeal Court but is a potential claimant as he suffers from irreversible damage to the lining of his lungs caused by exposure to asbestos. Yesterday, he described the ruling as a blow.

"If they had to work in the conditions we worked in, they would know all about it," he said.

Mr Scarlett, who was exposed to the deadly material when he worked in a Belfast shipyard as a young man, knows there is the possibility that he may one day develop the malignant cancer mesothelioma.

"If I walk at all I get breathless but it is living with this, not knowing how it is going to develop or what it is going to develop into," said the pensioner, who lives with his wife Elizabeth in Chepstow Road.

Mr Scarlett's solicitor Eamonn McDonough, who works for Thompsons, the firm which brought the court case, said: "It is a big disappointment. We did think we would win these cases."

Although they have been given leave to appeal to the House of Lords, it is unlikely to be heard until at least the end of next year.

Appeal Court judges Lord Phillips, the Lord Chief Justice, and Lord Justice Longmore ruled that although pleural plaques showed someone was exposed to asbestos, it did not mean they were suffering from any disease.

But, said Mr McDonough, the third judge had found in their favour. "She said they were not trivial injuries. People who are exposed to asbestos have a greater chance of developing an absolutely horrendous, fatal, lung disease for which there is no treatment at all."