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Posts Tagged ‘asbestos compensation’

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Higher Asbestos payouts for the elderly

Following a landmark ruling on damages for pain and suffering, elderly victims of the asbestos-related disease, mesothelioma, could be entitled to a substantial amount of compensation.

Mrs. Justice Swift awarded 92 year-old Dennis Ball £50,000 compensation in the High Court last week. The compensation was given due to the pain and suffering he encountered after developing asbestos-related cancer, following his work for the National Coal Board and British Coal Corporation.

The compensation amount was higher than the figure of £35, 000 recommended by the Judicial Studies Board (JSB) guidelines.

In a written statement, Mrs. Swift said:

‘A person of any age who is informed that his or her life will be cut short by the effect of a harmful substance to which he or she has been wrongfully exposed is likely to suffer a good deal of distress.’

‘Even if a deceased’s death has in the event been relatively peaceful, he or she will have been fearful since being told of the diagnosis of mesothelioma that a painful and distressing end lies in store.’

February 16, 2012 8:43 am - Posted by Asbestos News  | Comments ( 0 )
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Asbestos Payout

A former Wearside shipyard worker whom was killed by an asbestos-related illness has received compensation for his death.

It was the workers family whom fought for the compensation and has now won the claim.

80 year old, Ted Hall passed away months after his diagnosis; he was suffering from mesothelioma a cancer of the lining of the lungs which is caused by exposure to asbestos.

Mr Hall was exposed to the chemical as a 15-year-old apprentice and joiner while working at Hudson Dock and Pallion Yard on the Wear; he was never warned about the dangers of asbestos.

Father of two, Ted Hall, moved to Basingstoke on 1954 and then to Dartmouth with his wife Patricia in 2004, he was diagnosed with the illness in December 2010 and died 5 months later.

February 13, 2012 9:45 am - Posted by Asbestos News  | Comments ( 0 )
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72 year old widow finally ‘claimed justice’

A widow, whose husband died from asbestos poisoning, has finally ‘claimed justice’, when her three year fight for compensation ended with her receiving a £200,000 pay-out.

Pamela Holliday has revealed her joy of winning the fight for her husband Ralph’s justice, after the company for which he worked initially refused to accept responsibility.

Whilst working at Tretol Limited factory, in Buckingham Avenue, Slough – between 1951 and 1954 Mr. Holliday was required to handle asbestos delivered to the factory in hessian sacks. After his death in June 2008 his wife took legal action against Tretol Group due to them initially claiming he never worked there.

In order to support her case, Mrs. Holliday tracked down a phone directory from the 1950’s in the Slough Library, proving her husband did work for the company.

She said: “I’m so pleased for my husband – that’s what he wanted me to do. It took his life – time that we should have been spending together. “That is why I kept on for so long – I wanted to get justice for him. I know he would be proud of me.”

December 13, 2011 9:43 am - Posted by Asbestos News  | Comments ( 0 )
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Northern Ireland asbestos decision is welcomed by Unite but England and Wales’s asbestos victims still denied their compensation

On Monday the 5th of December Supreme Court judges were asked to end the uncertainty about whether people dying from mesothelioma, the asbestos related illness, and their families will be entitled to any compensation.

Unite, Britain’s biggest workplace union, made an appeal to the UK’s highest court after insurance companies were partly successful in a test case. The test case was done to determine whether insurers are liable to pay claims for the fatal asbestos illness, mesothelioma.

The court of appeal (CA) ruled in October last year that the high court was wrong in  2008 when it was decided that all insurers whom provided cover to the employer, at the time of asbestos exposure, should pay.

In the most recent survey by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), figures revealed that there were 2321 mesothelioma deaths and close to 400 of these deaths, were women.

December 7, 2011 9:35 am - Posted by Asbestos News  | Comments ( 0 )
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Wilson ‘Overturns’ Lords Asbestos Ruling

People suffering from the asbestos-related lung condition pleural plaques – usually contracted in the building sector – will be able to seek compensation from next week due to new legislation.

The NI Finance Minister Sammy Wilson said the legislation to allow workers to pursue claims and noted that the Stormont Executive has already set aside £2.5m for claims.

The legislation reverses a House of Lords decision of 2007, which ruled victims could not claim compensation with Minister Wilson now saying that the Damages (Asbestos-related Conditions) Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 will come into operation on 14 December.

He confirmed that the purpose of the 2011 Act is to reverse the decision of the House of Lords in Johnston v NEI International Combustion Ltd and conjoined cases 2007. In that case, the Court had ruled out the possibility of a claim in negligence for asymptomatic asbestos-related pleural plaques.

The corresponding legislation in Scotland was the subject of a long-running challenge, which was initiated by insurers and which came before the UK Supreme Court. On 12 October 2011, the Supreme Court rejected the insurers’ claims that the legislation infringed their human rights and was outside the competence of the Scottish Parliament.

December 6, 2011 10:10 am - Posted by Asbestos News  | Comments ( 0 )
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Asbestos victims launch court bid

Victims of asbestos-related cancer and their families are hoping that a Supreme Court case that is due to start will clarify a “complex” area of the law in their fight for damages.

Following a Court of Appeal ruling in October 2010 lawyers said many victims faced more “confusion and uncertainty” over who can be compensated and it was now a matter of “pot luck”.

Five Supreme Court justices, headed by the court’s president Lord Phillips, will now hear appeals arising out of six separate test case actions over eight days.

The proceedings will centre on the question of when liability is “triggered” – either at the time of exposure to asbestos or at the onset of symptoms.

Insurers won a partial victory in the 2010 Court of Appeal ruling which found that only some sufferers could recover damages for the injuries they sustained at work decades ago.

The three judges were unable to agree on a High Court ruling given in November 2008 – hailed as a victory for the victims – that employers’ insurers at the time of exposure were liable to pay out on claims for the fatal lung disease mesothelioma caused by exposure to lethal asbestos in the workplace.

10:04 am - Posted by Asbestos News  | Comments ( 0 )
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Grandfather’s payout in BT asbestos claim

A RETIRED telecommunications engineer has been awarded a payout after contracting a deadly asbestos-related disease during a long working career in Torbay.

Grandfather Frederick Vincent, 76, from Torquay, has been given a five-figure sum by a judge sitting at the High Court in Bristol.

A judgement was made against Mr Vincent’s former employers, British Telecommunications Plc, for its part in allegedly negligently exposing its employee to asbestos dust.

Mr Vincent worked for the company for 30 years and was regularly exposed to the lethal fibres.

He was diagnosed with mesothelioma on his 50th wedding anniversary to wife Jean earlier this year.

He says he will use the money, an interim payment pending a final settlement, to improve his healthcare for the time he has left and make provisions for his family.

Mr Vincent started as a telegram boy for the Post Office in Torquay when he was 15 and then for BT as an installation engineer between 1962 to 1989 where he regularly came into contact with asbestos.

December 5, 2011 10:00 am - Posted by Asbestos News  | Comments ( 0 )
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Gateshead Council wants asbestos payouts restored

VICTIMS of illness from asbestos have won the unanimous support of a Tyneside council.

Gateshead Council has voted to support the campaign of people with pleural plaques, a scarring of the lungs caused by asbestos.

People on Tyneside diagnosed with the disease since 2007 are entitled to nothing in compensation, while folk over the border in Scotland can claim thousands of pounds.

The motion to recognise the unfairness of the situation, and support the fight for change, was moved by Coun Paul Foy.

He told Gateshead councillors: “In Scotland the rights of people with pleural plaques are more important than the commercial interests of insurers.

“Meanwhile nothing has changed for sufferers in England. The failure of now successive governments to act leaves them isolated.”

November 29, 2011 9:16 am - Posted by Asbestos News  | Comments ( 0 )
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Payout for former Crewe railway worker

A FORMER Crewe railway worker has received a ‘substantial payout’ after he developed fatal cancer mesothelioma while employed at the town’s locomotive works.

Former union official Dennis Jones, 82, has been compensated for the asbestos disease he developed while at Crewe Railway Works.

He is one of many railway workers from Crewe to be exposed to asbestos and the town has a high numbers of mesothelioma sufferers.

Mr Jones was first exposed to asbestos when he was just 16 years old and has now received an undisclosed sum after developing mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs.

Mr Jones was exposed to asbestos while working as an apprentice for Crewe Locomotive Works from 1945.

He went on to become a full-time union official for Amicus, now part of Unite the Union.

November 10, 2011 8:57 am - Posted by Asbestos News  | Comments ( 0 )
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Compensation appeal to colleagues over carpenter’s asbestos death

The lawyer of a Teignmouth carpenter who died after allegedly being exposed to asbestos has appealed for his former colleagues to come forward in the fight to win compensation for his estate.

Richard Hooper died in October 2009 aged 63 from mesothelioma, a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos.

He had been diagnosed with the disease two months earlier.

Lawyer Lesley Mynett, who is acting on behalf of his estate, is hoping anyone who worked with Mr Hooper in the 1960s and early 1970s will be able to provide information as she continues his battle for compensation.

Miss Mynett is an industrial disease specialist with Fentons Solicitors LLP.

She said: “Richard worked throughout Devon and Cornwall as a carpenter, a vocation he trained in as an apprentice from leaving school.

“In 1963, aged 17, Richard began working for J H Hooper & Sons (no relation), a job he held until 1971.”

October 13, 2011 12:40 pm - Posted by Asbestos News  | Comments ( 0 )
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£4m paid out to asbestos victims

UNION members in the North East have received more than £2m in compensation for asbestos-related disease in the last 18 months.

Trade union Unite and specialist lawyers Thompsons Solicitors won damages for 67 union members and their families, including 15 cases of the fatal asbestos-related lung cancer mesothelioma, according to new figures.

Thompsons have also recovered about £2m for pleural plaques clients under the scheme, including 72 Unite members in the North East who got up to £5,000 each.

September 23, 2011 1:23 pm - Posted by Asbestos News  | Comments ( 0 )
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Son to sue over dad’s asbestos exposure

A son whose father died from cancer related to asbestos exposure has launched a legal battle for compensation of up to £300,000.

Michael Howarth, 63, died from malignant mesothelioma, a cancer of the tissues surrounding his lungs, after being exposed to asbestos at work, according to a High Court writ.

Now his son Adam Howarth is demanding damages from his former employers, Stott Benham, whose predecessors were James Stott and Co (Engineers).

Mr Howarth, of Wales Street, Watersheddings, worked for the company, which made industrial catering equipment at the Vernon Works in Oldham, as an apprentice fitter and then a fitter in the sixties.

September 22, 2011 1:37 pm - Posted by Asbestos News  | Comments ( 0 )
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Relatives sue Coventry Dunlop over asbestos death

RELATIVES of an aircraft worker who died of lung cancer are suing his former bosses.

Maxmillian Surman, who worked for Dunlop in Coventry and lived in Nuneaton, died from mesothelioma – an incurable lung cancer caused by asbestos – in 2009.

Shortly before his death Mr Surman made an appeal for former colleagues to come forward to help him show he was exposed to asbestos at Dunlop in Holbrooks.

Thanks to that appeal in the Telegraph his relatives say they have now gathered enough evidence to lodge a claim for compensation in the High Court.

The writ was submitted by Alida Coates, of Irwin Mitchell Solicitors, who is representing the family.

September 21, 2011 1:26 pm - Posted by Asbestos News  | Comments ( 0 )
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