A LEGAL test case over the asbestos-related death of a Clitheroe man has suffered a major blow.

A victory for the family of Arthur Eddleston could trigger millions of pounds worth of payments from insurance companies.

But Appeal Court judges have said victims of insurable lung cancer only 'sustain' the injury when their disease develops, not at the point of first exposure to asbestos fibres.

That means insurance companies that, as long ago as the 1960s, covered employers - many of whom are are now defunct, changed beyond recognition or insolvent - may not have to pay up under policy wordings in force at the time.

Mr Eddleston's family and two other families are at the centre of the case.

The Clitheroe man worked as a foreman and joiner at Premier Construction Ltd for 20 years before dying of cancer in July 1996.

The 59-year-old worked for the company, which manufactured preform buildings, cutting sheets of asbestos from 1974 to 1994.

He was exposed to asbestos from the start of his employment up until 1982, a court heard.

Mr Eddleston was diagnosed with mesothelioma – a cancer of the lining of the lungs linked to asbestos exposure – in March 1996.

His widow Joan Eddleston, of Low Moor, Clitheroe and her daughter, Anita Gayle Fleming, of Rishton, have claimed £178,000 at London’s Appeal Court.

Mr Justice Burton in 2008 handed victory to thousands of mesothelioma victims when he rejected insurance firms' arguments - but this week his ruling was partially overturned at the Court of Appeal.

In a 114-page judgment, Lord Justice Rix accepted insurers' arguments that the 'normal sense' of the words 'sustain injury' refer not to the point of asbestos exposure but to the moment when the body's defences break down and tumours begin to develop, usually about five-to-ten years before diagnosis.

The judge, sitting with Lady Justice Smith and Lord Justice Stanley Burnton, recognised that that interpretation 'conflicts with the commercial purpose of Employers Liability insurance'.