Settlement from Ealing Council for refuse collector exposed to asbestos on his rounds

In the mid-1960s, David worked for Ealing Council, initially as a refuse collector for the first two years. David would hang off the back of an HGV lorry as it crawled down each street and he would empty residents' dustbins into the back of lorry. As the lorry's internal mechanism crushed the refuse, it would give off a cloud of dust. Occasionally, for a cup of tea or a small payment, David collected larger items such as old plaster board, timber and other DIY waste.

David then obtained his HGV license and moved onto a pre-boked service collecting larger items of waste including old mattresses and unwanted furniture. He would go into the Council's office each morning and collect a list of addresses to pick up from. Old corrugated asbestos roofing sheets were among the waste to be disposed of. If the corrugated sheets were still intact, he would break them apart either by stamping on them or using a shovel. He would then pick them up and chuck them into a wheelbarrow and then empty this into the back of his lorry.

He estimated he collected piles of corrugated asbestos sheets at least once every few weeks. David would then drive down to the Council tip in Greenford and empty them into the tip. He would often need to use a long-handled broom to drag any missed pieces out the back of the lorry and then chuck these onto the tip below. David performed this work from around 1968 until he left the Council in 1980.

David's neighbour contacted Natalie following David's diagnosis. Natalie arranged to see David at home with Peter Williams and took a detailed statement from David. She quickly traced the Council's employment liability insurers and sent them a detailed letter of claim setting out the allegations.

The Council were swift to deny that they were liable for David's illness, stating that any exposure to asbestos would have been 'de-minimis', i.e. too trivial to be taken into consideration.

Natalie commissioned supportive expert evidence from Dr Robyn Rudd, Consultant Respiratory Physician and Health and Safety Practitioner Chris Chambers and then issued Court Proceedings against the Council.

A date was set for a first Court Hearing in which the Council, through their lawyers, would need to satisfy the Judge they had some prospect of successfully defending the claim. The Council then made an out of Court settlement offer, which David accepted.

David said: 'Natalie and Peter has been nothing more than professional, courteous, made all paperwork and conversations at a level that we both could understand and this made the whole experience so much easier to understand and to digest what will happen. We cannot express how grateful we are that this has come to a satisfactory conclusion and to say that this would not have happened without your legal expertise'

*name changed

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