Boyes Turner’s expert mesothelioma asbestos claims lawyers were instructed to act on behalf of Gilbert after he was diagnosed with mesothelioma. Gilbert had spent almost his entire career working for the General Post Office/British Telecommunications (BT) between 1948 and 1990.
Gilbert started as a telegram boy, before he chose to move across to work as a technician in telephone exchanges. This entailed him repairing telephones and systems and meant he was out on site for a large chunk of his career with BT.
Gilbert went into properties including residential houses, asylums and factories, if there had been a break in the wires or if there was a fault. This involved getting into small spaces, crawling underneath pipes, brushing against pipes and climbing over pipes.
When Gilbert attended the asylum’s exchanges he described that he would be in tunnels running underneath the hospitals where all of the services and utilities were. A number of the pipes were lagged with asbestos. The work that he was undertaking meant that he disturbed the asbestos lagging which caused asbestos dust to be released into the atmosphere.
Gilbert also worked with rawl plug, an asbestos material known as philplug. He used this when drilling holes into walls. He would moisten the rawl plug by spitting on it. In addition, Gilbert drilled into prefabricated houses using a hand drill and repaired Bakelite telephones.
Gilbert’s work with BT meant that he had frequent exposure to asbestos dust. Following our instruction a letter of claim was sent to BT and an admission of liability was made within 5 months including an interim payment of £50,000 on account of damages.
Evidence was gathered regarding Gilbert’s losses and a report was obtained from a medical expert in asbestos related diseases to support Gilbert’s case. Gilbert’s case was settled for £140,000 gross.
Settlement of Gilbert’s case included compensation for his future care and assistance. Gilbert was only receiving palliative care and this compensation included provision for professional nurses if necessary.
Gilbert’s daughter who normally resided in Greece had moved to live with him since his diagnosis to provide him with care and assistance and the claim included compensation for the additional living expenses associated with his daughter’s residence.
For more information about how the asbestos and mesothelioma claims team can help you or your loved ones after diagnosis with an asbestos related disease contact the team by email on [email protected].
