Widow’s fight for justice will help thousands of others

A decision in the High Court in London will help thousands of asbestos sufferers and their families claim compensation for their condition. Manchester solicitor Pauline Chandler, a specialist in asbestos disease cases with law firm, Pannone LLP, says she is “Absolutely delighted”, that the Judge presiding in her case for an 76 Year old widow, Della Sabin, from Hindley Green, Wigan, whose husband died from asbestosis, decided that the number of asbestos fibres in the bodies of asbestos disease victims, needed to prove a persons disease is capable of being diagnosed as asbestos related, was less than the previously accepted number.

The Della’s husband Leslie started the claim off himself against his ex-employers British Rail in 2004. He had been exposed to asbestos between 1958 and 1962 when he worked for British Rail as a lorry driver, where one of his jobs was to drive loads of hessian sacks full of raw asbestos to the Turner & Newall plant in Hindley Green. The sacks were very dusty and he moved over 100 of them every trip. Some of them broke whilst being moved creating clouds of dust.

Left to carry on the fight
Sadly Mr Sabin died on 10 May 2006 aged 78, leaving his widow Della to carry on the fight for justice. Lung tissue samples were examined by electron microscope at Llandough Hospital in Cardiff. They found 7 million asbestos fibres, but Llandough Hospital who have researched into asbestos diseases for many years, said that about 20 million fibres need to be found before fibrosis should be diagnosed as asbestos related. The Defendants therefore defended the case on the grounds that Mr Sabin’s fibrosis had not been caused by asbestos.

The Llandough study was based on asbestos exposure in the 1940’s, 50’s and 60’s, in industries where exposure was heavy, such as shipbuilding and asbestos production itself. Pauline Chandler sought expert advice from a pathologist at Duke University, North Carolina, where their study was made over a larger number of cases from a wider range of jobs. In addition, most of the subjects in the Llandough study died more than twenty years ago. Leslie Sabin lived for forty years after his exposure to asbestos and during that time, a large number of the fibres, as many as 28 million, would have ‘cleared’ from his body.

The Judge said that the Llandough Hospital values were, “Set too high, probably significantly too high” and found in favour of Mrs Sabin and awarded her £100,000 in compensation.

Landmark decision
Said Pauline Chandler, “This is a landmark decision that will benefit thousands of people throughout the country. Asbestos disease is massively debilitating, painful and distressing to live with and can very often prove fatal. Compensation for those who have been negligently exposed to asbestos dust can not restore health but it can help improve quality of life for sufferers and their families.”

Mrs Sabin said she was relieved the case had reached a successful conclusion and commented, “Leslie would be pleased to know that his legal fight was not in vain and that his case may well help thousands of others.”