27 September 2007
Daniel Easton, a solicitor at Leigh Day & Co, has settled a claim for Mandy Ansell, who lost her husband Graham to mesothelioma, for £215,000.
Graham had been a carpenter by trade and during his apprenticeship in the 1970’s fitted asbestos soffits to roofs and cut up asbestolux boards as fire protection on construction sites. At the time he was unaware of the dangers of asbestos and his employers did little to protect him from the exposure to the deadly dust, despite there being widespread knowledge of the dangers for years. Due to the latency period in asbestos disease claims, Graham did not notice any symptoms until 30 years later in 2005 when he was on holiday with his family.
Graham was subsequently diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer which affects the lining of the lung and which can only be caused by past asbestos exposure. He contacted Leigh Day & Co in November 2006 and we issued his claim in the High Court’s “Mesothelioma Fast Track” one month later. Graham underwent major surgery in December 2006 to try to remove the affected lung and increase his life expectancy, but the surgery was unsuccessful and Graham never fully recovered. Despite trying to achieve an early settlement with the defendants, Graham unfortunately died the following April and the claim was continued in his wife Mandy’s name. Following lengthy negotiations, Graham’s former employer agreed to pay sufficient damages to settle the claim without going to court.
Daniel comments:
“Although these damages will go someway towards supporting Mandy and her three children, the amount of damages in these cases goes only a fraction of a way towards compensating the victims and their families. Mandy also hopes to be able to continue the work that Graham did in his local community at a music recording studio. The simple fact is that Graham Ansell’s exposure to asbestos should never have happened in the first place and the fact that companies such as this continued to expose their employees to asbestos throughout the 1970’s is tragic. There are countless others who will be feeling the effects for decades to come.”
For more information please contact Daniel Easton on 020 7650 1200
Information was correct at time of publishing. See terms and conditions for further details.
Information was correct at time of publishing. See terms and conditions for further details.