November 3rd, 2009
A welder from Liverpool has won £140,000 in compensation after he contracted terminal cancer from working with asbestos.
Ronnie Cadwallader, 76, was diagnosed with mesothelioma in November 2007 after spending part of his working life stripping asbestos lagging off pipes, turbines and boilers.
His wife Ann told the Livepool Daily Post: "Ronnie was so fit and healthy, always running and never smoked or drank. All of a sudden he was really poorly with no energy.
"It was horrific."
His two-year struggle for compensation was made more complex by the fact that the two firms he had carried out such work for were no longer in business.
But Mr Cadwallader has finally been offered compensation by insurance firm Zurich, which was the insurer for one of his former employers, Carolina Engineering.
The Health and Safety Executive has recently launched a campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of working with asbestos aimed at tradesman and maintenance workers.
Tags: Asbestos Compensation, Boilers, Cadwallader, Health And Safety, Health And Safety Executive, Insurance, Insurance Firm, Insurer, Liverpool, Maintenance Workers, Mesothelioma, Pipes, Stripping, Struggle, Terminal Cancer, Tradesman, Turbines, Wife Ann, Zurich
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September 9th, 2009
The family of a former miner have been awarded £85,000 in compensation after he died of a work-related lung disease.
Roy Gamble died of lung cancer at the age of 73 in 2005, 21 years after ending his career in Yorkshire’s coalfields
Doctors said he had developed cancer as a result of silicosis, which prompted him to pursue a compensation claim against his former employer British Coal in 2003, reports the Yorkshire Evening Post.
Mr Gamble asked his daughter Linda to continue the claim after he died and her efforts to secure a settlement have now proved successful.
It was finally accepted that exposure to silica dust in the pits was the root cause of the condition which led to Mr Gamble’s death, resulting in the compensation payout.
News of the settlement comes just days after the widow of an engineering worker from Stalybridge who died from mesothelioma following exposure to asbestos at work received a £60,000 compensation payment.
The Manchester Evening News reported that the case against Frederick Hughes’s former employer Vernon & Roberts was settled four years ago, but that his widow had to take action against the former directors of the company to obtain the money, as both the engineering business and its insurer had gone out of business.
Tags: Amp, British Coal, Compensation Claim, Compensation Payment, Daughter Linda, Insurer, Lung Cancer, Lung Disease, Manchester Evening News, Mesothelioma Asbestos, News Reported That, Pits, Root Cause, Silica Dust, Silicosis, Stalybridge, Yorkshire, Yorkshire Evening Post, Yorkshire Post
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June 22nd, 2009
A man who was left needing a lifetime of care after being injured in a car accident has been told that he is to be awarded compensation.
Ben Wilkinson, then 20, allowed his 23-year-old friend Kieran Fitzgerald to drive his car home from a takeaway, despite the fact that the man had been drinking.
He was a front-seat passenger when Mr Fitzgerald lost control of the vehicle, ploughing into the path of an oncoming car. Mr Wilkinson suffered multiple fractures and brain damage.
With the help of his family, he took legal action against his friend’s insurer – Churchill – and a judge at the high court has now ruled that the organisation must pay out to the victim.
Churchill has said it will appeal the decision.
Although compensation is usually claimed from the responsible party’s insurers, claims may still be made where this person is uninsured through the Motor Insurers’ Bureau, which was established in 1946.
Tags: Brain Damage, Car Accident, Churchill, Crash Victim, Fitzgerald, Fractures, Front Seat, Insurer, Kieran, Lifetime, Motor Insurers Bureau, Mr Wilkinson, Old Friend, Oncoming Car, Ploughing, Responsible Party, Seat Passenger, Takeaway, Victory
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April 16th, 2009
A boy who sustained serious head and spinal injuries after being run over by his father has been awarded a compensation payout of more than £8 million.
Callum Cross, then aged two-and-a-half, was visiting a farm in Leighton Buzzard with his family in March 2002 when his father reversed over him in his car.
He suffered spinal and brain injuries that were described as "catastrophic" and will need constant care for the rest of his life.
Callum’s mother Julie Eriksson took legal action against Patrick Cross, whose insurers admitted liability at an early stage.
An interim payment of £1.7 million had already been made, but another settlement of £2.5 million plus yearly payments of £220,000 has now also been agreed to.
Mrs Justice Swift said: "While this order cannot possibly put him back to the circumstances in which he otherwise would have been, I hope it will play its part in enabling him to live to his full potential."
In road traffic accidents such as this, the insurer of the responsible party will be the organisation making the compensation payout should it be ruled that one is due.
Tags: 5 Million, 8m, Brain Injuries, Callum, Circumstances, Constant Care, Insurer, Interim Payment, Leighton Buzzard, Mother Julie, Patrick Cross, Responsible Party, Road Traffic Accidents, Spinal Injuries, Swift
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November 24th, 2008
A test case has taken place in the high court which ruled that people who contract asbestos-related cancer from work should still be allowed to claim compensation.
A number of firms facing legal action had argued that claims should be made against the policy of the insurer at the time of diagnosis, not against that at the time of exposure.
However, the case was dismissed after the judge ruled that mesothelioma sufferers and their families should still be able to claim compensation from their former employers’ liability.
A legal representative for one of the families which brought the case said the victory was "vitally important" in pursuing compensation claims, since most companies which exposed workers to asbestos are no longer in business.
If a person can prove they were exposed to asbestos at a place of work, they may be able to make a claim for compensation as a result.
Tags: Asbestos Cancer, Asbestos Compensation, Compensation Claims, Diagnosis, Employers Liability, Exposed, Insurer, Legal Representative, Mesothelioma, People, Test Case, Victory, Workers Compensation
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