Boyes Turner’s expert mesothelioma claims lawyers were instructed by the family of John after his sad death from mesothelioma.John’s family were able to provide information about his employment history. John was previously in the army and was a member of the Household Cavalry in London between 1950 and 1955. After John left the army he joined the firm C Norris & Sons in Northamptonshire. This was a large engineering company involved in tanning. The company manufactured a variety of tanning machines. John worked for the company as a maintenance engineer. John’s family believed that he was exposed to asbestos whilst working on the pipework for C Norris & Sons Limited. Unfortunately, the company had long since dissolved and there was no identifiable employers’ liability insurance in order to pursue a claim for compensation against C Norris & Sons.After leaving C Norris & Sons in 1968 John went on to work for a company known at the time as E Woodley & Sons Limited which was also a tannery company. John worked for E Woodley & Sons Limited which became Woodley Holdings Limited from around 1968 until around 1990 when he retired. John was again employed to undertake maintenance work as a maintenance engineer on site. His work involved him maintaining the building structures and the machinery which was operated for the tanning process.The company was a large company which had three warehouses on site, a KIP shed for sorting the leather and the main buildings where the tannery works was undertaken.The tanning work involved a lot of dust and chemicals in the air. John worked within all of the different departments within the tannery and was involved in repairing a number of the machines used in the tanning process.John encountered asbestos whilst undertaking his work as a result of asbestos lagged pipes which were feeding heat, steam and water into the tanning machines. John’s job involved him removing the asbestos lagging from the pipes. Some of the lagging appeared like Plaster of Paris which would have to be cut off and some of the lagging appeared more like a blanket. When removing the asbestos lagging substantial amounts of dust were created which John inhaled.John also undertook maintenance to the buildings around the site and encountered asbestos when doing so.John was a very self sufficient man. He had cared for his own father who lived to the age of 95 and was a very capable man. He did all of the jobs, all of the shopping, cooking, cleaning, washing and ironing to care fro his wife when her health deteriorated. She sadly died in 2016. John’s health then began to gradually deteriorate shortly after his wife’s death. He managed to live independently with help and assistance from his daughter until January 2017. At this point his health began to deteriorate rapidly and after seeing a doctor and being prescribed antibiotics he unfortunately collapsed and was admitted to Kettering General Hospital. He had fluid drained from his lungs on two separate occasions and was receiving morphine. He sadly died at the beginning of February 2017.During the last six weeks of John’s life he became incredibly poorly. He was diagnosed with mesothelioma in his life time following a chest x-ray. This was later confirmed on post mortem.We instigated a claim against Woodley Holdings Limited following John’s death as a result of mesothelioma. John had nobody who was dependent upon him financially or otherwise and therefore the claim was brought on behalf of John’s estate. Disclosure of documentation was made at an early stage and an offer to settle was put forward on behalf of John’s estate to encourage early settlement of his claim. Unfortunately this was not forthcoming and court proceedings had to be issued in order to progress matters and after service of a defence the defendant made a further offer to settle John’s claim on behalf of his family. On our advice John’s family rejected the Defendants offer and agreed an increased settlement of £68,000 on behalf of his estate.The settlement will be distributed to John’s children, grandchildren and great grandchildren in accordance with his wishes.
