Wife receives GBP 700k in asbestos payout

A Leicestershire woman has been awarded more than £700,000 after her husband died of asbestos-related lung cancer, it has been reported.

London's high court ruled that Susan Smith should receive £703,347 damages from the Midland Co-Operative Society, after husband Michael Victor Smith died of mesothelioma in May 2004, according to the Burton Mail.

Mr Smith had worked as an electrician for the company between 1982 and 1987 and was exposed to asbestos while in his role as a "hands-on working foreman", the judge, Oliver-Jones QC, decided.

Another claim from Mrs Smith, that her husband was also exposed to asbestos dust when he worked for Leicestershire-based J and M Morris (Electrical Contractors) between 1978 and 1982, was rejected.

The original claim from Mrs Smith's legal team was valued at £2,750,158, largely for her "loss of dependency" on her spouse's earnings, the newspaper reports.

Earlier this week, the Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard revealed that Gloucestershire coroner Alan Crickmore ruled Cotswold carpenter James Bredin died of asbestos-related lung cancer.