Brent v Cape Insulation Ltd
For about a year in 1966-67 Brent was employed by Cape as a centre lathe turner in the maintenance department at their notorious Barking factory. He wiped asbestos dust off parts of machinery before repairing them. Fitters who were covered with dust used to come into his workshop. When Cape was shutting the factory down in 1967, employees who had been clearing out the main building chucked broken asbestos boards into a nearby skip.
Just before Christmas 2007 Brent, then aged 66, became very short of breath. After a biopsy was performed in the London Chest Hospital, he was told in March 2008 that he had mesothelioma. He instructed Rodney Nelson-Jones who three months later recovered £130,000 damages for him.