Over £100,000 compensation awarded to daughters for loss
of their father in mesothelioma case
Between 1974 and 1983 Kenneth Kirk was
employed as a joiner by Vic Hallam Ltd. For one month around
1980 they sent him to work at a farm where he had to cut large
quantities of asbestos sheets with a skill saw. This caused
him to contract mesothelioma at the age
of 75 in 2007. He died from the disease in April 2008. The
Defendant admitted liability.
His wife suffered from early dementia. He had
two grown up daughters, Beverley and Julie, both of whom worked as
teachers and had two daughters each of their own, aged between two
and nine. Kenneth Kirk provided a valuable service in term-time by
driving his granddaughters to and from their schools and caring for
them after school until Beverley and Julie were able to collect
them.
Initially the Defendant argued that Beverley
and Julie were not entitled to any compensation at all for the loss
of their father’s help with his grandchildren. There was no
legal precedent for this. At the High Court hearing in October,
however, the judge accepted that Beverley and Julie were each
entitled to £2,000 per year and awarded them £27,960 for loss of
their father’s help with the children. The judge’s total award for
all the heads of loss was £109,357, much more than the £80,000 that
the Defendant had offered shortly before the hearing.
Rodney Nelson-Jones completed the case within
nine months of first being contacted.
For further information or if you have an
mesothelioma claim please
call Rodney
Nelson-Jones on
020 7861 4022 or email rodney.nelson-jones@ffw.com.
You can discuss your mesothelioma
claim with any member of our mesothelioma team on freephone 0800 358
3848, email personalinjury@ffw.com or
complete our short enquiry form.