About me

I was a partner in John Pickering & Partners between 1984  and 2005. I won or settled cases for clients with mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis, diffuse pleural thickening, and pleural plaques, including hundreds of mesothelioma cases.

I led the team of solicitors that preserved the entitlement to compensation of most mesothelioma victims.

I was one of the solicitors in the only asbestos disease group action brought in this country, on behalf of South African asbestos miners.

In October 2005 I set up my own firm to work for mesothelioma victims.

In the last 3 years, I have settled or won many mesothelioma cases.  I have not lost a case.

I will take on a limited number of cases. I aim to complete cases within 4 to 9 months. The key is to start court action quickly.

I will see clients suffering from mesothelioma anywhere in the country.

 

Mpumalanaga, South Africa. British company Cape plc operated asbestos mines here. Cape plc eventually compensated asbestos disease victims in 2003.

 

Swaziland: British multi-national T&N ran an asbestos mine at Havelock (Bulembu), Swaziland. Many former workers and residents developed asbestos-related illness.

George Cahill v Manchester City Council

 

Between 1966 and 1970 George was employed at the Manchester City Parks Department based at the Heaton Park Workshops, Heaton Park, Manchester. “During every day that I spent working on vehicles I came into contact with brakes. This involved taking the wheels off the vehicle, the drums, inspecting the brakes, checking the rubbers for fluid leaks and if the brakes were worn, putting new brake shoes in… I used a compressed air pipe to blow out the dirt and debris. I also used the compressed air pipe to blow out the brake drum. This was the accepted way of doing it.” This was his only known asbestos exposure.

He said in June 2003: “My symptoms started in August 2002 with chest pain…I experienced a recurrence of this pain in January 2003, pain in the left side of my chest whilst I was at work, and so I went to the accident and emergency department, and was kept in for a few days. I had a pleural effusion which was drained, and x-rays and tests were done…Mesothelioma was diagnosed about 4 weeks ago as a result of the pleural biopsy.”

George was accepted as part of a trial of chemotherapy Alimta and Cisplatin. He was a physically powerful, imposing, and mentally tough person, and was able to tolerate the treatment.

George’s wife Wendy and sons looked after him as his illness worsened. This put great strain on them because George found it very difficult to accept his situation. George had 2 respiratory arrests at home.

They found that there is a lack of residential/nursing care facilities for relatively young men such as George. George’s youngest son suffered greatly as a result of his father’s illness.

His case was listed for trial and settled in January 2004 for £135,000.00.

Cynthia Vickers v BBA Group

 

Jeff Vickers was born in 1936. He died of mesothelioma in June 1999. From July 1951 to June 1957 he worked for British Belting and Asbestos (BBA) in Cleckheaton Yorkshire as an apprentice general electrical engineer in the installation and maintenance of equipment, including motors and control gear, switches, fuses and cables, temperature control, lighting including flameproof fittings, power factor improvement equipment. BBA (British Belting and Asbestos) was, with T&N and Cape, one of the “Big 3” UK asbestos producers, who formed the Asbestosis Research Council. The factory and the machinery were full of asbestos dust. Carding, spinning and weaving of asbestos was carried out, as a result of which the general atmosphere of the factory was very dusty.

Jeff ended his career as managing director of the photography company Ilford (UK), from which he had retired in 1996. I was instructed by his widow Cynthia Vickers in August 2002. The case settled for £400,000.00 in November 2004, very shortly before trial.

Ernest Holt v Hardmans

Ernest Holt was born in 1930. In March 2003, he said: - “I was told on 27 February 2003 that I have mesothelioma. I began my apprenticeship in 1945 as a joiner… I remember my dad telling me “get into there and you will be right for life”… As a joiner it was my duty to maintain the fabric of the mill buildings. I was involved in all types of joinery work: roofing, building and fitting wooden frames for windows, doors and stud partitioning. I was involved in extensive alterations within the factory. This involved demolishing old walls and replacing with new offices, rooms and corridors. …A lot of my repair work involved the use of asbestos. I used corrugated asbestos cement sheet for roofing. I also used a material called Asbestolux. Abestolux sheeting was used everywhere within the mill. …Cutting the asbestos boards with this (power) saw created massive clouds of dust. We were paddled in the stuff. When this board was cut with an electric saw dust hung in the air for hours…After a day’s work the waste dust would be ½ inch to 1 inch thick on the floor around the trestles.”

Ernest instructed me to pursue his case in March 2003. I issued court proceedings and the case settled in November 2003 for £90,000, which gave credit for £10,691 he had received under the 1979 Act.

 

Edwin Matthews v British Uralite

Eddie Matthews developed mesothelioma as a result of exposure to asbestos with several employers. The insurers of his employers argued that because in theory mesothelioma can be caused by a single asbestos fibre, it was not possible to say which employer had caused Mr Matthews’ disease, and therefore none of them were to blame legally. Mr Matthews won his case in the High Court but the insurers took it to the Court of Appeal, where he lost.

I led the team of solicitors that took his case and Doreen Fox’s case to the House of Lords in July 2002, where they won. The Law Lords decided that any employer that materially increased the risk of one of their workers developing mesothelioma was legally responsible to compensate the victim. Had the case been lost, most mesothelioma victims would have lost their right to be compensated by the courts, because most asbestos workers have been exposed to asbestos by more than one employer. Mr Matthews was awarded £155,000.00.

He was a brave man with great dignity, who was willing to speak to the press and other media during the progress of his case in spite of being in pain with the disease, in order to highlight the issue affecting hundreds of other victims.

 

Afrika and others v Cape plc

I acted for 2,200 of the 7,500 South African asbestos miners and residents who sued the British company Cape plc. I worked on the case between 1998 and 2003 with Richard Meeran, a London based solicitor, who had started the case.

The workers and residents had been exposed to blue and brown asbestos in the Northern Cape and Limpopo, South Africa by subsidiaries of Cape plc, but brought the court action against the UK parent company. Cape plc.

For several years Cape plc tried to have the cases sent to South Africa. It knew that lawyers there could not take on anything so big and complex. There was no legal aid there to fund the case. It knew that compensation in South Africa was much lower than in the UK, and that most of the claims would die with the victims under South African law.

In Summer 2000 the House of Lords decided that the cases should proceed in London. This led to settlement of the action by Cape and another company Gencor in March 2003 for £10.5 million.

Many of the clients, particulary in the blue asbestos fields of the Northern Cape, had developed mesothelioma.

In Prieska, where Cape plc operated a series of mills to extract the asbestos fibre from the ore, entire families who had never worked with asbestos died of mesothelioma.

This has been the only time that:

(1) A large number of asbestos victims in another country was allowed to bring a court action in the UK.

(2) A multinational company, whose parent was based in the UK, paid compensation to many workers whom it had not employed directly, and to residents and family members made ill by environmental asbestos pollution.

Asbestos Street, Prieska.

Copyright © Anthony Coombs 2006