Substantial settlement for widow whose husband died following exposure working for British Leyland
Shaheen Mosquera has secured a settlement for the widow of an electrician exposed to asbestos while working for almost thirty years for British Leyland which later became part of the Rover Group.
George Reeves was employed by British Leyland at their Oxford plant in Cowley in the 1970s and remained with the company until the early 1990s. He had worked in maintenance as an electrician and his job involved carrying out repairs and maintenance which involved working with lagged pipes.
He suffered a stroke in the early 1990s and as his health steadily deteriorated over the following decades he relied on his wife Kathleen for care. In the latter years he was taken to hospital several times by ambulance as he was so weak and unwell. It was only when he was admitted to A&E in September 2020 that Kathleen learnt that her husband had asbestos related cancer.
At the side of his hospital bed Kathleen asked him when and where he had been exposed to asbestos and he told her about his work at the car factory. George died three months later at home with asbestos related cancer.
After her husband's death Kathleen instructed Fieldfisher in a complex and challenging claim. As she contacted Shaheen after her husband's death, we did not have any lifetime witness evidence of the circumstances in which George had been exposed to asbestos while working for the car manufacturer.
Initially HMRC refused to provide details of his employment with British Leyland as George had died without a Will and a document was needed to prove that Kathleen was his next of kin. This and the lack of supportive evidence made it impossible to pursue a claim, so Shaheen and the team set about finding witnesses to provide accounts of George's time at the plant and the asbestos exposure.
They contacted members of a group for former British Leyland employees on Facebook and launched a witness appeal in a local newspaper in Oxford.
Eventually HMRC provided George's employment history and after lengthy negotiations a settlement was reached. Shaheen secured a substantial sum on behalf of Kathleen.
In hindsight Kathleen says she wishes she had contacted a lawyer when she received George's diagnosis, as the claim would have been easier with his evidence.
"I left it too late really to make the claim. But the diagnosis was such a shock, I was just focusing on George at the time," said Kathleen. "Before he died, I asked him where he had worked with asbestos and he said, 'In the car factory".
Thanking Shaheen and the team for their work she said: "Shaheen was so good. It was very difficult for her because of the timing, but she worked so hard trying to find people who had worked with George. It was very hard for her, but she did it – I was so happy and surprised."
Kathleen said that the settlement amount means she no longer has to worry about finances for the future. "I'm not a big spender, I'm more of a worrier as we've never really had much to spend. But now I don't have to worry about paying my bills and my rent. And I've been able to help my children and grandchildren," she said.
Contact us
For further information about mesothelioma and asbestos disease claims, please call Shaheen Mosquera on 0330 460 6817 or email shaheen.mosquera@fieldfisher.com.
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