Boyes Turner was delighted to recently conclude a longstanding mesothelioma claim for the widow of a hard-working and generous family man who had sadly succumbed to mesothelioma in September 2021. Initial Mesothelioma diagnosis and legal advice Ken had contacted Boyes Turner in April 2021 after he had been diagnosed with mesothelioma that month. As was common at that time, that first meeting was conducted via Zoom with Ken, his wife Elaine and Melloney Harbut, Legal director at Boyes Turner. Ken had been diagnosed with mesothelioma in April after symptoms of shortness of breath commenced in January 2021. A biopsy confirmed the dreadful diagnosis. Asbestos exposure through employment in the 1970s Ken had been exposed to asbestos in the 1970s whilst employed as a refrigeration engineer, initially as an apprentice. He fitted out cold rooms, fixing equipment and pipework within them. The inner skin of the cold room walls was Asbestolux and his work involved cutting and drilling, which resulted in significant exposure to asbestos dust. He also undertook various work on the refurbishment of well-known food halls, resulting in heavy asbestos exposure. Tracing employers’ liability insurance and establishing liability Melloney set about investigating the claim and a letter of claim was sent to the insurers, traced by way of ELTO searches, Zurich. Zurich indicated that they could not trace cover of the long-dissolved company but a strongly worded letter to Zurich resulted in confirmation that their policy did indeed cover the Defendant company and breach of duty was finally admitted but not until April 2022, which was sadly after Ken had passed away in September 2021. Continuing the claim following death from Mesothelioma Elaine, as Personal Representative, continued with the claim after Ken’s untimely death. The claim was valuable due to the fact that when he developed mesothelioma Ken was still working in the family business he had built up from scratch and which he had intended to remain heavily involved in long term. That business remained and remains a success following Ken’s death due to his and the family’s hard work to continue and preserve his legacy. Given the value of this claim, in addition to the usual medical expert evidence relating to Ken and Elaine, Melloney instructed a forensic accountant to assess Elaine’s financial dependency on Ken and she worked closely with the family and the forensic accountant to evidence and value the highly complex loss of dependency claim. Court proceedings and expert evidence Court proceedings were commenced in August 2024, due to limitation, to ensure that Elaine’s position was protected. Once court proceedings were issued, the Defendant sought permission to obtain their own expert medical evidence and evidence from their own expert forensic accountant. An assessment of damages hearing was listed for October 2025, for a Judge to determine the appropriate level of compensation. In addition to the sizeable income dependency claim, there was also a significant services dependency claim to reflect how much Ken did for his wife and wider family, including children and grandchildren. The parties’ respective valuations of the claim differed hugely, there being a difference in approach to the income dependency calculations between the two expert forensic accountants. There was also a dispute as to how long Ken would have remained working in the family business, despite his intention to remain heavily involved long term, and his ability to continue doing so much for the wider family, with the medical experts giving different opinions as to his ability to continue to do so. Boyes Turner resisted the Defendant’s tactical efforts to undermine the high value claim and blocked their attempt to allow their respiratory physician to comment on Ken’s pre-existing cardiac health by ensuring her cardiology expert attended the respiratory experts’ joint meeting to protect her client’s position. These factors all created “risk” going into the Joint Settlement Meeting in September 2025. Settlement negotiations and joint settlement meeting In the lead up to the joint settlement meeting, the Defendant made repeated, low level and short-term time-limited offers, none of which were capable of acceptance. After several hours of negotiation at the joint settlement meeting with our barrister, a leading barrister in the field of asbestos disease claims, Boyes Turner were successful in agreeing a settlement Elaine was delighted to accept, which included a repayment to the hospice for their end-of-life care costs of Ken. Successful outcome and compensation for the family The family were thrilled with the outcome, the key family members all being present at the JSM to support one another, and to have secured justice for Ken after such a long-running battle. Boyes Turner and Melloney are pleased to have been able to bring this claim to such a successful conclusion for the family, who she has worked so closely with for a number of years. She wishes them all well for the future. No amount of money will replace Ken but the compensation gives them financial peace of mind and the opportunity to put this chapter behind them. *names have been anonymised. For more information about how the mesothelioma and asbestos disease claims team can help you or your loved ones after a diagnosis of an asbestos related disease, please contact the team by email on asbestos@boyesturner.com or by telephone on 0118 952 7199.
