Boyes Turner’s mesothelioma specialists have secured a £280,000 settlement including private immunotherapy costs for a man who was exposed to asbestos as a teenager.
John lives alone on a farm in a remote location. As his mesothelioma progresses, he will need help to manage his home and extensive gardens, and ultimately to continue living independently as his care needs increase. In the absence of family, and aware of the implications of a diagnosis of mesothelioma, John was keen to protect his home, lifestyle and independence. It was of the utmost importance to him that any settlement should be achieved in time to provide for professional, home-based, personal care and that it reflected his preference for private immunotherapy treatment, should it be needed, rather than chemotherapy.
Exposure to asbestos
He was just 17 or 18 years old when, in hindsight, he believes he was exposed to asbestos during his 12 month period of employment with Tenon Contracts Limited. For the first nine months of this job he worked on a building in Cardiff where he remembers unloading 8ft x 4ft sheets from a lorry and carrying them to assemblers. The assemblers then used circular saws and hand saws to cut those sheets to fit. He swept up the debris at the end of the day and put the rubbish in a skip. He then moved to another job in Birmingham, carrying out the same activities, but in a different location.
Mesothelioma compensation claim
John instructed us after he was diagnosed with mesothelioma. We were already aware of Tenon Contracts Limited and their employer’s liability insurers at the time of John’s employment, despite the company having been dissolved many years ago, because we had succeeded against them in a previous claim.
We put the claim to the employer’s insurers and obtained a supportive opinion from an engineering expert confirming that the products John had handled for Tenon Contracts would have been Asbestolux. The insurers initially denied liability but within seven months of our instruction they admitted liability in the light of our expert engineering evidence.
We also instructed a nursing care expert to visit John at his home to ensure that the claim made proper provision for John’s current and future needs for care, specialist aids and equipment and home assistance.
Settlement and future costs covered
We then entered into settlement negotiations with the defendant employer’s insurers, indicating that John would accept an offer of £280,000. The insurers offered to settle for £250,000 but after further negotiation, settlement was achieved in the gross sum of £280,000, of which a sum has been retained by the insurers to provide for private immunotherapy treatment in the event that John (who is currently doing well) takes up the treatment in the future.
We are delighted that we were able to settle John’s claim so quickly and in a way that provides securely for his home, care and treatment preferences for the future.
If you or a loved one are suffering from mesothelioma or other asbestos-related diseases, contact us by email at [email protected].
