Mesothelioma claim against a brewery
£245,000 Awarded in 2019
Brewing companies often used asbestos in the construction of the buildings. Asbestos could be found in pipe insulation, cement and other materials in the building structures built before the 1980s.
Mr O was raised in S. Africa in close proximity to an asbestos mine. He recalled that his property was often covered in dust as the wind would carry asbestos laden dust from the mines.
There are huge deposits of asbestos in South Africa and thousands have died from Mesothelioma. Researchers believe the cancer is vastly underreported as diseases like tuberculosis are still health issues for the country. This means that many workers will die of these conditions before developing mesothelioma, which usually takes several decades to develop thus skewing the statistics of the true incidence of mesothelioma.
Small amount of asbestos exposure at brewery & Local pub
He moved to The United Kingdom and did various jobs before working in a local pub and brewery. At the time, the pub was being refurbished and he often worked alongside maintenance workers. There were pipes and boilers that were lagged with asbestos as well as asbestos in the structure of the building.
Exposure was difficult to prove as he did not work directly with asbestos but was in the vicinity of maintenance work. Normally this would be difficult to argue with the insurance company. However, in this case our solicitors found that another firm had filed a successful claim against the brewery under similar circumstances. This was still a tenuous link, so a claim was submitted to the fund of last resort (Diffuse Mesothelioma Payment Scheme) for the work he did at the pub.
Fortunately, the other firm of solicitors was above to provide a witness statement of a victim of mesothelioma who was exposed to asbestos at the same brewery. Once precedence is set in this way, cases are much easier to progress.
The claim was issued and the insurers of the brewery agreed to settle and offered £215,000 of compensation for the mesothelioma and another £30K for a local hospice.
If you have worked at a brewery and were exposed to asbestos, you may be able to make a claim. This is possible even for relatively small levels of exposure. If you would like to speak to someone about this, please call the number below or click on the chat button at the bottom right of this page.
Solicitor
Jennifer Seavor
Partner
Jennifer is a Partner in our Personal Injury team and Head of the Bath and Swindon Industrial Diseases Teams. She exclusively represents sufferers of asbestos related diseases, including mesothelioma, asbestos lung cancer, asbestosis and diffuse pleural thickening, and their families.. Read more >
