Litigation
By 1988 a Supreme Court jury found that CSR had been "recklessly indifferent" to the safety of its workers and that ABA knowingly allowed the processing of asbestos to continue even though the dangers of asbestos fibre inhalation were known as early as 1926. One litigant Klaus Rabenault, was awarded $426,000 in damages and CSR was fined $250,000 for its criminal behaviour. A year later, Klaus died of mesothelioma.
The company was purchased from CSR Limited by James Hardie Industries Ltd and has now moved to the Netherlands in an apparent attempt to divorce itself from the asbestos crisis. Worker's compensation claims for previous workers, wives and offspring of residents of Wittenoom continue to be a big issue for company, which has not moved any further on the compensation case. The present number of known victims is around 2000. Since 1995, a disturbing trend has surfaced: many new cases of wives and children of workers from Wittenoom have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, possibly from washing dust-laden clothes of mine workers, while the children who used to play in the mine tailings that were spread over the streets at Wittenoom, have also been affected.
The company was also subjected to court actions by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Tax Office (ATO) over its corporate tactics and activities.
Read more about this topic: Australian Blue Asbestos