Charlie Price

THE MINISTRY of Defence today won the bulk of its appeal against a court ruling which allowed Britain’s atomic test veterans, including two from Shropshire, to claim damages.

The decision is a blow for about 1,000 servicemen, including Leslie Lund, of Telford and Charlie Price, of Leebotwood, near Church Stretton.

They had won their High Court bid for the right to sue for damages in June last year when High Court judge Mr Justice Foskett had ruled that 10 test cases out of 1,011 claims could proceed to full trial.

But the MoD launched an appeal to block the veterans, who blame their ill-health, including cancer, skin defects and fertility problems, on involvement in Britain’s 1950s nuclear tests.

Leslie Lund

And it learned today it had been successful in the majority of its challenge.

Mr Lund, 75, of Hollinswood, said today he was disappointed. He said: “That is bad news. I don’t know whether that will be the end of it or we are going to try again.”

The great-grandfather said it was a possibility that individual claims could be made and it was something he would consider.

The MoD, while acknowledging its “debt of gratitude”, had denied negligence and had fought the cases on the preliminary point they were all launched outside the legal time limit.

Today Lady Justice Smith, Lord Justice Leveson and Sir Mark Waller ruled that nine out of the 10 cases were statute-barred, while the 10th, that of the late Bert Sinfield, was entitled to proceed to trial.

The judges said that they had declined to exercise their discretion in the veterans’ favour because they had no evidence by which they could hope to prove that their illnesses had probably been caused by radiation exposure.

It is likely that the veterans will attempt to take their case on to the Supreme Court.

At the MoD appeal last May, the MoD’s counsel, Charles Gibson QC, told Lady Justice Smith, Lord Justice Leveson and Sir Mark Waller that a “wholesale reappraisal” was required because the judge erred in adopting a generic approach to the test cases.

By Lisa Rowley