An engineering firm responsible for an employee contracting the deadly asbestos related disease Mesothelioma have been ordered to pay £10,000 towards his care at a hospice.
St. Joseph’s Hospice in Hackney, East London was caring for James Wilson until he died there aged 76. James was exposed to deadly Asbestos dust while working at Deptford Power Station during the 1950’s. His former employer Foster Wheeler must now contribute towards the cost of his care at the £900 a day hospice.
The NHS contributes 35% towards the cost of running the hospice with the other 65% coming from charitable contributions. The hospice argued that the companies responsible for the patients suffering should be liable for the cost of care.
In a landmark decision the High Court agreed with St. Josephs and this could lead to thousands of other hospices with Mesothelioma patients also making claims against employers.
Roy Nightingale a social worker at the hospice, instrumental in the court win, has been helping victims of the deadly disease for over 10 years. Roy sees 5 or 6 sufferers every week at St. Josephs, which is a hotspot for the illness due to the near proximity of the Dagenham Ford Car Plant, where employees came into contact with asbestos used in the manufacture of brake pads and Cape Plc a company involved in the cutting of asbestos sheets back in the 1960’s.
A man, who campaigned tirelessly for a fair compensation deal for workers suffering from the asbestos related disease Mesothelioma, has tragically died from the illness.
Bernard Dean contracted the disease whilst working for Erewash Borough Council, where he was employed as a joiner from 1977 to 1981. His job involved refurbishing council properties where he frequently removed asbestos from doors, windows and garages.
Mr. Dean received compensation from Erewash Borough Council but campaigned relentlessly for fellow sufferers who couldn’t claim, as the companies they worked for no longer existed.
Even when seriously ill with cancer, Bernard travelled to Nottingham to meet with the former Prime Minister Gordon Brown. He went to discuss the prospect of setting up a fund for those who couldn’t trace former employers, so they too could be compensated for the damage caused by asbestos.
Earlier this year Bernard volunteered for a clinical trial and became the first person to take the cancer drug LDE225. Unfortunately he was taken off the trial when the tumours in his lungs continued to spread.
His wife Susan said: “He was always thinking of somebody else. He’d put himself through treatment just to help others with the disease. It was brave of him to do that drug trial. He was devastated when he was told that he couldn’t carry on.”
Former rail workers from Swindon who suffer with pleural plaques, a condition caused by the inhalation of asbestos dust, will be eligible to collect £5,000 in compensation, reports the Swindon Advertiser.
Payment of damages had previously been put on hold by the House of Lords but it has now been announced by the Ministry of Justice that sufferers will be entitled to claim compensation at a flat rate payout of £5,000.
Pleural Plaques is a scarring of the lungs which can occur after inhalation of asbestos fibres. No symptoms are present but the condition suggests that anyone diagnosed with pleural plaques has been exposed to asbestos dust, which can lead to more serious conditions such as Mesothelioma a lethal form of lung cancer.
Numerous claims are expected from the Swindon area due to the fact that a large number of people could have been exposed to the deadly material whilst employed at the local railway works. During the period 1981-2005, 137 people died from Mesothelioma in the Swindon area, many of them being railway employees.
To be eligible for the compensation claimants must have instigated a claim prior to the 17th of October, 2007 and applications from people who have the condition must be made before the 1st August 2011.
Ex-miners are claiming that they have not been compensated correctly for industrial injuries they suffered whilst at work. Some twenty miners are claiming that poor advice given at the beginning of their compensation claim has cost them dearly.
The miners are suffering from a condition known as ‘Vibration White Finger’ which is caused by consistent use of vibrating hand held machinery, symptoms include severe pain and numbness in the hands, loss of grip and fingers turning white as a result of damaged blood vessels. Everyday tasks such as gardening or DIY are made difficult or impossible by this industrial illness.
The Government set up a compensation scheme over ten years ago to simplify, speed up and ensure claim payments would be consistently fair for miners. It would now appear that coal workers could have been under compensated.
The schemes administrators say that any miners, who feel they have not received adequate compensation, can take their case to the Legal Complaints Service.
If successful, the claim could possibly lead to another 50,000 cases being looked at again. Compensation could be as high as £25,000 especially for younger miners who would receive the annual compensation for a greater number of years.
Since the Government Scheme was set up it has paid out £4.1 Billion to suffering miners making it the biggest personal injury compensation scheme in the United Kingdom.
British Telecomm engineers who are suffering from tinnitus and other hearing problems have been told they may be entitled to claim compensation for their conditions.
Cardiff County Court are already looking into some claims and are asking the parties involved if a Group Litigation Order would be more suitable, a Group Litigation Order can be invoked when there are multiple claimants, however some kind of time limit is usually involved.
Because of this the Communications Workers Union is urging any employees of BT suffering with hearing defects to contact them immediately. It would appear the problems have been caused by engineers using certain oscillators and amplifier tone sets which could have left them negligently exposed to high noise levels.
Tinnitus is a common hearing condition caused by exposure to loud noise and is more prevalent in industrialised nations. The condition can be present in one or both ears and its symptoms range from mild to severe. In extreme cases tinnitus can result in the patient becoming clinically depressed due to lack of sleep and persistent ringing in the ears.
Compensation for deafness and tinnitus can vary greatly, due to the degrees of severity but payments can be in the region of £7,000 to £19,000 for serious hearing problems.
They were the definitive sound of the 2010 world cup, but the dreaded vuvuzela can do more than spoil your enjoyment of a football match.
The noise emitted by the vuvuzela can reach levels of 100 decibels and more, which is above levels allowed in industrial environments and could prove to be a significant risk to employees and stewards at football matches who would be entitled to make a claim for compensation if there hearing was damaged whilst at work.
It is unlikely that fans would be eligible to any kind of claim due to the fact that they voluntarily put themselves into a noisy environment much like music fans at rock concerts, it is however a different situation for employees who would have to endure the situation on a regular basis.
The majority of Premier League clubs have already banned the irritating horn from their grounds for next season, West Hams South African striker Benni McCarthy commented “It is the most annoying thing and you could go deaf! I think they shouldn’t let the people in the ground with them.”
His fears were backed up by Vivienne Michael, chief executive of the charity Deafness Research UK who said, “Fans in close proximity to vuvuzelas being blown risk suffering tinnitus, a painful ringing in the ears, or long-term loss of hearing, extended exposure to noise at 85 decibels is enough to irretrievably diminish hearing.”
Compensation amounts for industrial deafness can vary enormously depending on the severity of the condition but as a guideline serious tinnitus and hearing loss can result in a payment of roughly £8,000 - £19,000 and total hearing loss in both ears with tinnitus up to £70,000 almost equivalent to an average Premier League player’s weekly salary.
Plans to compensate former Slate Workers for the disabling effects of dust inhalation have fallen into disarray.
The former Labour Government proposed the plan of a compensation fund to alleviate the suffering of former slate workers affected by pneumoconiosis which is an industrial disease caused by the breathing in of dust usually in mines.
Campaigners for the Slate Miner’s have had enormous difficulties pursuing any compensation claim due to the fact that that the vast majority of the companies employing the miners have ceased to exist. To help combat this problem the former Labour administration had suggested the setting up of an agency to track down insurers of former slate quarry firms.
Unfortunately the setting up of these Government bodies was interrupted by the General Election of May 2010, and could hamper the campaigns claim for compensation.
Former Aberconwy MP, Betty Williams, whose father died as a result of the effects of slate dust, said “What bothers me now and worries me deeply, is that the present Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government are talking about getting rid of non-governmental organisations - they might not even consider the proposals.
“They might not even consider the setting up of these two bodies, which would help the people that we have been fighting for for many years.”
The Department of Work and Pensions have said they will respond to the previous government’s proposals “in due course”.
A father has died from mesothelioma just weeks after winning a long battle for an asbestos compensation claim.
John Manniex, a former demolition worker triumphed over his employers but had little chance to enjoy his substantial compensation claim payout when he succumbed to his fight against the deadly lung disease.
Mr Manniex was employed to demolish houses in the 1960’s that were prefabricated out of aluminium. The houses were demolished so that any aluminium which was used could be reclaimed.
He said they used to push out the asbestos panels in the roofs and let them drop onto the floor, which meant they would break and asbestos fibres would be released into the air. He also used to take out kitchens that had built in ovens which were insulated with asbestos sheets.
He said, Mee & Cocker, his former employers would only be interested in the aluminium roofs and did not provide protective equipment or warn the employees on any dangers in relation to asbestos dust and fibres.
Only after Mee & Cocker’s former company director admitted that the prefabricated houses may have been lined with asbestos and they did not know what material had been used in them, did Mee & Cocker’s lawyers settled Mr Manniex’s compensation claim.
A fireman who has been diagnosed with mesothelioma, a deadly lung disease has started an industrial disease compensation claim against a former employer.
In September 2009 Willaim McCreadie, 68, was diagnosed with cancer when he went for a chest X-ray. It is believed this was caused by being exposed to asbestos.
Mr McCreadie believes being exposed to asbestos fibres and particles when working as a fireman for Essex Fire Authority during 1969 to 1974 is the reason why he developed the industrial disease.
He commented that when working with the fire service, the fire-fighters went to many industrial fires where they were required to walk over surfaces and remove wrapping from around pipes, which would disturb the fibres, to ensure that the fires had been extinguished.
Mr McCreadie hopes to claim up to £200,000 for his industrial disease compensation claim in order to cover his care costs, from his former employer, stating that he was given no respiratory equipment by the fire department.
The disease has cut it life expectancy down by about 15 years as the disease affects the lining of the lungs.
If anyone feels they have a claim for compensation, due to working in environments where they feel asbestos was present, they should pursue an industrial disease compensation claim within three years of diagnosis.
At the Court of Appeal in London the widow of a ship’s cook won a £3180 compensation payout on appeal.
The case centred on Mr. Thomas Keefe, from Liverpool, who spent more than 35 years as a cook in the galleys of various ships, many of which travelled between the city of Liverpool and the Isle of Man. He said was deafened by excessive noise on Isle of Man Steam Packet ferries.
A hearing test in June 2004 revealed he had suffered noise induced hearing loss, Mr. Keefe was employed by the Steam Packet Co and had been employed by them for more than 20 years.
Three senior judges at the Court of Appeal in London finally brought the long-running saga to an end, they overruled the previous ruling that was in the company’s favour.
Mr Keefe launched claim for compensation but unfortunately died before he could have his day in court. His wife Carol carried on his case claiming the company had not fulfilled its duty of care to its employees.
Criticised by Lord Justice Longmore for fact that it had even got to the Appeal Court, where costs can spiral.
He said, “It is much to be deprecated that the case has had to come to this court to achieve so small a result.”
Lord Justice Longmore also said it was clear that the company had breached its duty in not measuring noise levels at locations on the ship.
He ordered the company to pay the full legal cost of the claim that could run to more than £50,000.
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