Mesothelioma Cases In Australia

What does developing Mesothelioma mean to you?

It significantly shortens the length and reduces the quality of your life. The potential of the many years ahead of you are now obliterated by a condition that once diagnosed, leaves you with very little time. You won't be able to work anymore plus you will be subject to expensive medical bills.

The family suffers, robbed of your potential to financially support\contribute and love them.  It is for these reasons that compensation must be sought and Mesothelioma cases pursued.

Mesothelioma Cases

Since Mesothelioma is discovered only decades after being exposed to asbestos fibres, you may think it can be hard for Mesothelioma cases to be supported. However, with a good lawyer and firm it is often possible to dig deep and establish elaborate circumstances that led to asbestos exposure which most likely resulted in Mesothelioma.

You will be advised as to whether you have a strong enough case or not. With the bulk of asbestos exposure occurring in the 60s and 70s, the number of people coming forward to this day and the increasing amount of information to support Mesothelioma cases has been strong.

SETTLEMENTS IN AUSTRALIA

Name: Anita Steiner
Company: James Hardie
Source:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Asbestos-victim-to-get-payout/2007/11/08/1194329385267.html
Date:  November, 2007
Compensation payout: Undisclosed
Number of people paid out: 1
Details: Developed mesothelioma from her exposure to asbestos as a child years ago while her parents built an office and unit next to their home in Adelaide.

Name: Garth Clyde Copp
Company: James Hardie
Source: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/queensland/james-hardie-pays-out-queensland-asbestos-victim/2008/04/23/1208743024187.html
Date:  April 24, 2008
Compensation payout: Court documents suggest Mr Copp may have been seeking in excess of $1 million. However, a confidentiality agreement between the parties prevents the true amount from being revealed.
Number of people paid out:1
Details:

• His duties included sanding back asbestos cement walls and cutting asbestos cement pipes.
• While performing his duties, Mr Copp claimed he regularly inhaled asbestos dust, and would also become covered in the fibres.

Name: Winnifred Brennan
Company: James Hardie  
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/pm/stories/s254066.htm
Date: March, 2001
Compensation payout: $374,000
Number of people paid out: 1
Details: Mrs. Winnifred Brennan laundered asbestos contaminated clothes every day for many years.

Name: Tim Lacone
Company: James Hardie
Source: http://www.asbestos-post.com/dying-australian-inventor-wins-record-asbestos-payout.html
Date: February, 2007
Compensation payout: 2.7 million dollars
Number of people paid out: 1
Details:

• Contracted mesothelioma after using asbestos sheeting to build a fernery and glasshouse at his property at Gruyere, east of Melbourne, between 1967 and 1974
• His suit was based on the fact that the disease has kept him from realizing the financial earnings prompted by an invention
• Awarded the largest asbestos disease-related payout in the history of his country.

Name: David Hannell
Company: James Hardie
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200612/s1817781.htm
Date: December, 2006
Compensation payout: $500,000
Number of people paid out: 2
Details:

• The two British migrants are the first Western Australians to be awarded compensation after contracting mesothelioma from asbestos products in their backyards.
• Both men had cut up asbestos on their properties in the 1980s and '90s.

Name: Dennis Moss
Company: James Hardie
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200612/s1817781.htm
Date: December, 2006
Compensation payout: $225,000
Number of people paid out: 2
Details:

• The two British migrants are the first Western Australians to be awarded compensation after contracting mesothelioma from asbestos products in their backyards.
• Both men had cut up asbestos on their properties in the 1980s and '90s.

Name: Barbara O'Shea
Company: James Hardie and the State of Victoria
Source: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/07/29/1027926854103.html
Date: July, 2002
Compensation payout: hundreds of thousands (exact amount undisclosed)
Number of people paid out: 1
Details:

• Barbara O'Shea, 50, became the first Victorian since changes to the law in 2000 to be compensated after death for pain and suffering
• Mrs O'Shea said she had beaten husband Laurie O'Shea's coveralls up to nine times against a brick wall at their Wantirna home before washing them
• She was diagnosed with mesothelioma.

Name: Undisclosed
Company: Stevedoring Industry Finance Committee, James Hardie Industries and CSR
Source: http://www.allbusiness.com/legal/environmental-law-asbestos-environmental-loss/10006889-1.html
Date: August, 2001
Compensation payout: undisclosed
Number of people paid out: 11
Details:

• Payout for 11 widows
• Concerns the death of their husbands up to 20 years earlier

Name: Antonino Lo Presti
Company: FORD
Source: http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=77&ContentID=59311
Date: 19 February, 2008
Compensation payout: $840,000
Number of people paid out: Man and wife
Details:

• Exposed from 1970 to 1987
• Handled asbestos break linings
• “It would generate large amounts of dust containing asbestos which would blow up into my face and stick to my clothes and hair,“ Mr Lo Presti said in his witness statement to the court.

Name: Group Settlement
Company: CSR
Source: http://www.slatergordon.com.au/pages/asbestos_claims_experience.aspx
Date: 1989
Compensation payout: undisclosed
Number of people paid out: 350

Name: Mr Bill Ewins
Company: BHP
Source: http://www.slatergordon.com.au/pages/asbestos_claims_experience.aspx
Date: 2005
Compensation payout: $197,287.85
Number of people paid out: 1
Details: Mesothelioma was caused by his exposure to asbestos whilst employed by BHP between 1949, and 1963, at the Whyalla Shipyards.

Name: Arnold Heedham
Company: Power Worker for old State Electricity Commission
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2002/s637880.htm
Date: 2002
Compensation payout:
Number of people paid out:
Details: The man who'd spent 30 years working in the power industry died.

Name: Joe Ludkin
Company: Work Cover
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2003/12/18/1012661.htm
Date: December, 2003
Compensation payout: $320,000
Number of people paid out: 1
Details: Joe Ludkin's cancer was found to be attributed to asbestos exposure over more than 30 years.

Name: Father Robert McNeill
Company: Seltsam Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of CSR.
Source: http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,20281,16524514-5001021,00.html
Date: September, 2005
Compensation payout: more then $200,000
Number of people paid out: 1
Details: Father McNeill had spent only four hours on two or three days installing asbestos cement at his sister's house but it led to him contracting the deadly cancer mesothelioma.

ASBESTOS RELATED STORIES

About: Wittenoom – Mining Town in Western Australia
Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/living-in-the-danger-zone-the-last-stand-in-town-toxic-892877.html

Details

• Because of Wittenoom, Western Australia has the highest rate of mesothelioma and asbestos-related cancers in the world
• The court ruling coincides with the WA Government's decision to degazette the former asbestos mining town of Wittenoom and remove any reference to it on maps and road signs

Bernie Banton
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/peace-at-last-for-workers-hero/2007/11/27/1196036840541.html

Company: James Hardie Industries (Building)
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2005/s1302408.htm
Date: 21 December, 2004
Compensation payout: $4.5 billion
Number of people paid out:
Details:

• Biggest compensation payout ever
• James Hardie agreed to a plan to compensate victims of its asbestos products for at least 40 years
• A year-long campaign by unions in which tens of thousands of people rallied across the country
• NSW inquiry found that the company misled the public when it claimed it had provided enough money to compensate its victims