There were 3,000 plaintiffs. Each of them claimed damages in one of the 11 writs issued against the defendants between February 1997 and July 1999. All plaintiffs claimed damages for personal injuries (and in some cases death) suffered as the result of exposure to asbestos and related products in South Africa. The central issue was whether proceedings brought by the plaintiffs against the defendant should be tried in England or South Africa. The defendant sought a stay of the proceedings in England. The court refused to stay the proceedings. The court decided that in the interest of justice the matter should be tried in England. One judge stated, “I cannot conceive that this court would grant a stay in any case where adequate funding and legal representation of the plaintiff were judged to be necessary to the doing of justice and these were clearly shown to be unavailable in the foreign forum although shown to be available here.”