Pensioner in £300,000 asbestos challenge

A PENSIONER from York who says he got cancer from years of working with asbestos has launched a £300,000 legal claim against his former employer.

The 70-year-old said his health and lifestyle have been hugely affected after developing malignant mesothelioma, which he said he developed after working as a builder for Leeds-based Sorrell Homes Ltd.

According to the claim, now going through the High Court, he started work for the company as an apprentice bricklayer in 1958, and was exposed to deadly asbestos dusts and fibres during his work, which included sweeping up debris and working in boiler rooms in a number of jobs around York.

He alleged: “Asbestos debris would often be cleared by brushing it to one side, and his employers never warned him that his involuntary inhalation of the dusts could cause irreversible lung damage.”

He claimed Sorrell were negligent in failing to damp down asbestos dust, allowing him to work in an atmosphere contaminated with asbestos and failing to provide breathing apparatus.

Sorrell Homes has since gone into liquidation, however the claim can go ahead because the company’s insurance company at the time has been traced by Harrowells, the solicitors handling the case.

When contacted by The Press, the solicitors representing Sorrell Homes’ insurance company said they “could not comment on an ongoing litigation case”.