British Dockyard Worker Gets Big Settlement

November 2, 2006 - A British gentleman from the town of Sway, who was employed as both a naval dockyard worker and a power station employee and is now sickened with mesothelioma, has settled out of court for an undisclosed amount in excess of five figures, reported the Dorset Echo.

John Gardner, age 67, sued both the Ministry of Defense and electricity generators E.On UK.  He claims that he was exposed to asbestos while working for the Ministry of Defense (MoD) at Portsmouth in the early 1960s and the Central Electricity Generating Board as an engineer at Southampton and Marchwood power stations for 14 years until 1980.

Gardner, who’s been laid off since 1992, says neither of the employers mentioned in his suit warned him of the risks of working with asbestos. 

"I worked with asbestos a great deal during my time with the MoD. I would work in boiler rooms and engine rooms, hacking away at asbestos to remove it, not aware that the dust I was creating would harm me."

"Working alongside laggers who removed and replaced asbestos meant I was exposed to a large amount of asbestos. Sometimes the dust was so bad it was like snow falling.

"But at the time it was quite a normal thing to do, because workers had not been told about the dangers of asbestos."

Gardner was first diagnosed with scarring in his lungs in 2001.  By 2004, he had developed full-blown mesothelioma, a particularly aggressive form of cancer caused by prolonged exposure to asbestos.

"As with many people of his generation, he was not made aware of the risk of working with asbestos until it was too late and he is now paying the full price for that neglect," said Gardner’s lawyer Allison Kerr.  "We are pleased to have settled this case so quickly so that Mr. Gardner can make full use of his compensation, if he needs to, during his illness."