Widow wins pay-out for asbestos death

The widow of a former electrician struck down by deadly asbestos-related lung cancer has won a £700,000 pay out at London's High Court.

The damages were won by Susan Smith, whose husband Michael Victor Smith died, in May 2004, aged 52, from mesothelioma.

The asbestos-related lung cancer is notorious for its slowness to develop and the agony suffered by victims.

Mrs Smith, of High Street, Packington, near Ashby, blamed two of her husband's former employers for his exposure to asbestos dust.

Judge Oliver-Jones, QC, rejected her claim against Leicestershire-based J and M Morris (Electrical Contractors) Ltd, saying he was not satisfied Mr Smith had been exposed to asbestos while working for the company between 1978 and 1982.

However, he awarded Mrs Smith £703,347 damages from the Midland Co-Operative Society Ltd, for which Mr Smith worked as an electrician between 1982 and 1987.

The judge accepted Mr Smith had been exposed to asbestos during his job as a "hands-on working foreman" for the Co-op, in particular pointing to asbestos ceiling tiles at the Co-op's then premises in Union Street, Leicester, where Mr Smith had carried out wiring work.

Judge Oliver-Jones said Mrs Smith's damages claim had originally been valued by her legal team at £2,750,158, largely for her "loss of dependency" on her husband's high earnings as an employee of real estate, construction and infrastructure consultancy firm, EC Harris LLP. He became a partner in the firm before the early signs of his terminal illness ended his career in February 2003. Mr Smith had a senior role as an area leader for the firm and his widow's lawyers argued that, had he kept his health, he would have been paid more than £400,000, before tax, in 2008 alone.

However, in assessing his widow's damages, Judge Oliver-Jones said Mr Smith had been "under-performing" in his job before his departure – unconnected to the disease – and the judge said it was unlikely he would have remained an equity partner at EC Harris in the long term.