Limitation of claims for satisfaction of the heirs of an asbestos victim

Facts

The community of heirs of [A.A.] , who died in 2006, filed a lawsuit in 2009 against various defendants to assert claims for satisfaction for the mental anguish suffered by the deceased due to the asbestos disease. The Federal Court dismissed the appeal against the dismissal of the claim due to the statute of limitations.

Considerations

The Federal Court stated that the absolute limitation periods under Swiss law begin to run with the damaging event, i.e., the last asbestos exposure in 1972. Even if one were to assume a duty of the defendants to inform after 1972, the claims would have had to become time-barred at the latest by the end of the 1990s, as the health risks of asbestos were known from the 1980s onwards.

The Federal Court also saw no violation of the ECHR, as the Howald Moor judgment of the European Court of Human Rights does not generally exclude absolute limitation periods. Even if a period of 30 years were to be considered incompatible with the ECHR, a period of 37…