We acted for a lady who contracted mesothelioma even though she had never herself worked with asbestos or come into contact with it by living near an asbestos factory for example.

Her father, however, had worked in the coal mining industry on underground machinery which contained asbestos which became airborne fibres due to his operation of the machinery. When the lady was a young girl she recalled her father would come home from work in his dirty and dusty overalls and she would sit on his knee whilst he was still wearing them. Her father’s overalls were washed by her mother who, before she washed them, shook them outside the back door. She was exposed to the dust, which included asbestos dust fibres, from sitting on her father’s knee and from being around her mother while she was shaking the dirty overalls before washing them.

I was contacted quite late in the day and unfortunately the lady was already very ill and as it turned out only had a few days to live. Realising this, I immediately took a full and detailed witness statement setting out her recollections of her exposure to the asbestos dust and had her sign a handwritten copy, returning as soon as a typed version was available and reading it over to her before she signed it to confirm its accuracy.

Unfortunately the lady passed away before her claim was resolved, however, a significant settlement in excess of £100,000 was recovered on behalf of her estate after the defendant sought to deny the claim because of the small amounts of asbestos dust and fibres she would have been exposed to. The case was conducted under a “no win no fee” agreement.