In the big courtroom where, on December 10th, the asbestos impossible lawsuit against the Eternit top management will begin, there will also be the lawyers of a big Belgian firm and five Swiss societies. The Court has decided in favour of their summons for "tort liability".

To put it simply, if Stephan Schmidheiny and Louis de Cartier de Marchienne are convicted of environmental disaster and wilful failure to comply with safety measures, the six societies will be asked to contribute towards the compensation of the victims and several more plaintiffs. It will be a European record for a lawsuit.

Sergio Bonetto, lawyer, speaks of "about 4 billion euros. Only for the victims in Piemonte the claim is about 1 billion €. The workers and their widows have received a compensation from INAIL (Industrial Injury Compensation Board, editor's note) but the citizens who got ill because of asbestos, 400 in the Casale and Chivasso area, have never received anything. For each of them the claim is 1,2 million €"

The Belgian firm is Etex Group, a holding specialized in building materal, with headquarters in Bruxelles, 92 partner firms in 42 Countries and 14500 employees. Etex Group is managed by Baron de Cartier's son and it is referable to the 88-year-old baron.

The 5 Swiss societies gravitate around Schmidheiny and they all have registered office in Glarona Canton. They are : Anova Holding Ag, Amindus Holding Ag, Becon Ag, Ametex Ag and Eternit Ag. The lawsuit "with 3,000 plaintiffs from all over Italy" has its true objective in the "money matter". Up to now the accused people have been holding out, fearing a domino effect of the damage claims: there's a similar inquiry in France and in Turin there will be a really transnational plaintiff counsel.

In the summons application, accepted by President Giuseppe Casalbore and associate judges Fabrizia Pironti Alessandro Santangelo, the lawyers Sergio Bonetto and Napoli justify their request with these words: "the compensation figure is so high that we doubt the accused people have enough possessions to compensate the high number of plaintiffs which include public bodies as well" thus referring to INPS (National Social Security Institute, editor's note) with arequest of 2 billion in compensation, to INAIL (250,000 €), to the 3 Regions which claim compensation for medical expenses, to the towns which have to reclaim their areas.

(By Alberto Gaino, La Stampa / Asbestos in the dock, 06/11/2009)