Supreme Court allows award for asbestos-cancer fear

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) -- The Supreme Court ruled Monday that railway workers can recover damages for fear of developing asbestos-related cancer, in its latest decision arising from the asbestos litigation crisis.

"We hold that mental anguish damages resulting from the fear of developing cancer may be recovered under the (Federal Employers' Liability Act) by a railroad worker suffering from the actionable injury asbestosis caused by work-related exposure to asbestos," Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg declared for the court majority.

The decision was a defeat for Norfolk Southern Corp. ,which had challenged a $5.8 million jury award in West Virginia to six retired railway workers with asbestosis, a potentially deadly lung disease.

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