Retired GP receives compensation for mesothelioma.

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23 Oct 2018

Our client, worked for the National Health Service his entire working career. In his earlier days, he worked in hospitals in Aberdeen, Scotland before becoming a GP and settling in the Midlands.

He was a student in the mid-1960s and like many students both then and now, during his summer vacations he worked to earn some additional money. It was this work during the summer which was to go on to cause his mesothelioma decades later.

In the summertime he on his vacation from university, he would work in a local garage, Cordiners Garage. A family member got him the job there. He could recall working there when England won the World Cup in 1966. It was a big garage, spread over three sites. They serviced and sold both cars and lorries.

Our client worked doing various jobs for the garage including serving customers petrol, he went to the bank and collected the wages, he delivered cars for the garage and he cleaned them. In the last year he worked there, he went in early and turned on the airlines for use by the mechanics during the day.

Whilst working there though he would walk through the service area several times a day where the mechanics were working carrying out services on various cars and lorries. This included using the airlines to blow out the brake drums.

The work of the mechanics caused the garage to become dusty and this dust wouldn’t be cleared up until the cleaner came in after our client had gone home. Brake linings at this time contained asbestos and the dust created from the mechanics blowing out the brake shoes released asbestos dust into the air.

He only worked in the garage for a few weeks each year. He could not possibly have known at that time that that work was going to cause a fatal cancer, mesothelioma, over 50 years later.

Unfortunately the garage that employed our client had long since gone out of business and its insurers could not be traced. An application therefore had to be made to the Diffuse Mesothelioma Payment Scheme.

A requirement under the Diffuse Mesothelioma Payment Scheme is to be able to prove employment. Unfortunately Cordiners Garage did not appear on our client’s employment history as he did not pay Graduated Pension Contributions. This is not unusual when a person is an apprentice or doing a summer job as they do not tend to earn much money. However we were able to establish via records that he had worked for a number of weeks each year in the mid-1960’s.

Our client was awarded £149,641.00 under the Diffuse Mesothelioma Payment Scheme.

Helen Wilson who acted for our client said “Our client’s case shows that mesothelioma can affect people from all walks of life. Our client had worked for the National Health Service his entire life and yet it was that work back when he was a student that was to cause mesothelioma years later. This case highlights yet again that even very short periods of exposure to asbestos can cause this devastating illness.”