LAW LORDS have started hearing evidence in a crucial court case for sufferers of the so-called Swindon Disease, mesothelioma.

The case could affect compensation claims for thousands of men and women dying from asbestos-related diseases.

Many of them live in Swindon and contracted the disease at the town's former railway works.

But lawyers for the widows of two mesothelioma victims and a living sufferer are challenging earlier High Court and Court of Appeal rulings.

They said compensation could not be paid when more than one employer exposed a worker to the deadly dust, unless the victim could prove which asbestos fibre triggered the disease.

But Sir Sydney Kentridge QC, representing two of the claimants, told the five Law Lords yesterday that this view was "unduly narrow and mechanistic" and wrong in law.

"If an employee has only been exposed to asbestos dust by a single employer then he would not have any difficulty in proving a case against the negligent employer," Sir Sydney said

"If there is more than one, according to the Court of Appeal, the claim must fail."

He said the greater the exposure to asbestos, the greater the risk of contracting the disease.

Sir Sydney also said the courts of this country did not accept a situation where a claimant fails because, although two defendants had been proved to have acted negligently, the exact role of each was in doubt.

The claims for compensation involve Judith Fairchild, from Leeds, whose husband Arthur died from mesothelioma in 1996; 54-year-old sufferer Edwin Matthews, from Rochester, Kent; and the widow of Thomas Fox.

It is estimated that by 2010 around 10,000 people a year will be dying of mesothelioma, while hundreds, perhaps thousands, have already died of the disease in Swindon.

They include William Howard, a Swindon man who died from mesothelioma in 1999 after being exposed to asbestos by two separate employers, including a Rolls Royce subsidiary in London.

His widow Marion was awarded a five-figure settlement last year, despite Rolls Royce's argument that no-one could tell whether they or Swindon firm RJ Coley had been responsible for his death.

The House of Lords hearing is expected to last three days.