MORE than 100 Gwent families torn apart by a cancer they claim was caused by asbestos exposure could clinch a joint payout of £10 million after a landmark court ruling.

And today, relatives of two Newport men who died waiting for the legal ruling which finally came yesterday are beginning their legal cases against a number of the men's employers.

Yesterday five law lords overturned a Court of Appeal ruling which had denied compensation to victims of cancer they believe was caused by exposure to asbestos, because it could not be proved which of several employers was responsible for their illness.

Now the solicitor working on claims for 45 of the Gwent cases estimates they could each receive on average a £100,000 payout.

Angela Brooks' dying father had one last request to his daughter: "Continue with the claim".

Mrs Brooks, 48, of Chepstow Road, Newport, has battled for four years since her father's death of mesothelioma, an inoperable form of lung cancer only caused by asbestos, for compensation.

Her father, war veteran Mervyn Griffiths, died on August 12, 1998, aged 73, after working for a number of companies who he suspected had exposed him to asbestos. These included Uskmouth Power Station and British Steel.

His daughter said: "They took him into hospital on Saturday and he was dead by Wednesday. It was such a shock. He knew it was the asbestos killing him, and he had been campaigning for about six years before his death, but they never admitted it.

"It was so sudden his death. I asked the doctors why he had died and they said it was due to an 'industrial illness'. Even the coroner said that he had died as a result of something he had come into contact with at work."

She took up the fight for justice in the years after his death. She said: "I am very pleased with the decision, it has overturned a ruling that was unjust." Her solicitor, Mick Antoniw, an asbestos litigation specialist at Cardiff law firm Thompsons, said: "The decision at last restores some sense of justice to the victims of asbestos.

"But it is a tragedy that hundreds of men have died since the Court of Appeal ruling last year, not knowing if their families would receive a penny."

He represents 45 people claiming compensation for asbestos-linked cancer and believes in Gwent alone more than double that are waiting for justice.

He added: "These claims will add up to tens of millions of pounds in damages very soon. By 2010 there will be 10,000 asbestos deaths a year, more than road accidents.

"This ruling is absolutely crucial to justice in this country because it, means that people denied the right to compensation will no longer be ignored by the courts." Now Mr Antoniw will finally begin the cases waiting in limbo for years and issue writs to the companies concerned.

*PICTURED: Mervyn Griffiths, pictured here with his granddaughter Chantel, asked his daughter to carry on the fight for compensation after his death.