Asbestos widow awarded £113,000 but she probably won’t get a penny.

Joan Wightman of Manchester, England has been awarded over £113,000 in compensation for the death of her husband Ken from asbestos related mesothelioma. But Joan may never see a penny of it unless it can be proved which company her husbands’ employer was insured by.

Ken Wightman died aged only 53 just over four years ago. Part of his job as a plumber involved mixing and sawing asbestos and cleaning asbestos roofs, which were popular in the 1960’s. Said his widow Joan, “My Kenny was a lovely man and it was awful to see him suffer the way he did with this terrible disease. All his family miss him dreadfully and it’s really sad to think that he won’t see his four little granddaughters grow up.”

“Unless we can prove who the insurers of her husbands’ employer were, we will not be able to recover any of the compensation awarded,” said Pauline Chandler an industrial disease lawyer specialising in asbestos compensation claims with Manchester based law firm Pannone LLP. “It’s a real dilemma, without proof of who the insurer is we cannot progress. We have been able to trace the employer, a company called A. Temple Somerville, a builder and repair contractor from Cheetham Hill, which has now ceased trading and we know they were insured. Sadly at present we do not have documentary evidence of their insurance.”

Could you help?

“What we do have is the name of the company’s two insurance brokers, John Leslie Mellor of Heaton Moor and Chorlton Insurance Brokers. We also know the insurance company itself was based in St Annes Square, Manchester. Maybe someone reading this story worked for the brokers or might recognise the insurance company through the location. If so and they also remember A. Temple Somerville being insured, it would be very interesting to hear from them.

“It’s equally possible that the builders Ken Wightman worked for did some work for someone which required an insurance certificate. We would be extremely grateful if anyone with any information could contact Pauline Chandler at Pannone’s on 0161 909 3000. Their call could mean a lot to Joan who has lost her husband and may now lose the compensation due to her.”

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Deborah Ascott-Jones

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Pannone LLP

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