Durban residents have filed papers in the high court seeking substantial financial damages against India's UPL agrochemical giant, just hours before the legal gun of prescription threatened to wipe out their rights to seek justice in the courts.

In a case led by class action lawyers Zain Lundell and Richard Spoor, at least a dozen claimants have now put a legal marker in place to seek as yet unquantified monetary compensation from UPL South Africa, the local subsidiary of the world's fifth-largest producer of agrochemical pesticides, herbicides and other crop products.

However, it is understood that the applicants are aiming for a final damages or settlement tab of anywhere between R500-million and R1.5-billion from UPL, which has confirmed that it will oppose the court application. These preliminary estimates appear very unlikely, however, unless a substantially larger number of claimants come forward to join the case.

The residents' claim was filed late last week, just hours before the provisions of the Prescription Act of 1969 threatened to extinguish avenues for legal redress for alleged damage to their health, livelihoods and wellbeing - including the potential of developing further significant health damage several years from now.

This Act sets a general three-year time limit for legal claims to be instituted, and that legal clock stopped ticking just after midnight on 12 July - exactly three years after a mob of pro-Jacob Zuma looters set fire to more than 5,000 tonnes...