Mrs Smyth's story

Mrs Smyth was diagnosed with mesothelioma on 21 October 2020. She instructed Patrick Walsh to investigate her claim on 2 November 2020. At first, Mrs Smyth could not recall any exposure to asbestos dust at work but recalled that her late husband had worked at Harland and Wolff’s shipyard in Belfast in the mid-1960s and that he was exposed to asbestos dust.

Mrs Smyth recalled that she washed her husband’s work overalls which were contaminated with asbestos dust.

In 1967, Mrs Smyth and her husband moved back to England where her husband worked for three other companies up until 1972, again, bringing home overalls which were contaminated with asbestos. Mrs Smyth washed those overalls.

Mrs Smyth also recalled that she and her husband were exposed to asbestos dust at the shop that she used to manage when electrical work disturbed asbestos tiles and spread dust into the work room which she cleaned up. 

Mrs Smyth has no financial dependents. At the time of her diagnosis, she was told that she had a limited life expectancy, but this might be extended with immunotherapy treatment.

The claim had to be brought with extreme urgency for two reasons. Firstly, a substantial part of the claim, worth an estimated £98,000, would have died with her if she had died before the case was heard. Secondly, at that time, the only way to get funding for the immunotherapy treatment she needed was to claim the costs of that immunotherapy treatment as part of a successful claim against an employer.

Court proceedings were issued on 24 March 2021 against five companies. One was Mrs Smyth’s former employer where she was exposed to asbestos dust as a shop manager, and the other four companies were the companies her husband worked for and where she washed his contaminated overalls.   

All the Defendants disputed they were responsible for causing Mrs Smyth’s disease.

At an early Court hearing, Harland and Wolff admitted responsibility for causing Mrs Smyth’s disease and agreed to pay her damages and fund the immunotherapy treatment she needed.   

The Judge listed the case for a hearing to take place on 8 July 2021 to decide on the amount of damages. Harland and Wolff reached a settlement with Mrs Smyth on 7 July 2021 and agreed to pay her the sum of £210,000 damages and to pay for the costs of future immunotherapy treatment.