A retired manager with the Port of London Authority has received £23500.00 compensation after being diagnosed as suffering asbestos related pleural thickening. Unite, Britain’s largest Union, has secured the compensation for Terence O’Connell in association with specialist personal injury solicitors, Pattinson & Brewer.
Mr O’Connell, now aged 84, from Romford, worked for the Port of London Authority from 1937 until 1975, save for the wartime years when he served in the RAF. He started as a boy messenger and by the time of retirement, was manager of the Orsett Container Base. While working as a customs clearing clerk in the 1950s and 1960s, he was exposed to asbestos at the South West India Docks when supervising the discharge of asbestos cargo.
Mr O’Connell says:-
“I suffered from a very dry cough which I could not shake off. My GP referred me to hospital where I had a CT scan. I was told that I had asbestos related pleural thickening. This came as a terrible shock and was completely unexpected. I have kept myself active and fit all my life.”
Mr O’Connell’s solicitor, Paul Meehan, from Pattinson & Brewer solicitors says:-
“Like the majority of workers at that time, Mr O’Connell was never warned by his employers of the dangers of working with asbestos. At that time, the PLA knew or should have known, that asbestos was a dangerous material and it was legally obliged to protect its workers from exposure to asbestos.”
Note
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