THE family of a company boss who blamed his death from asbestos-related cancer on his work at Marks & Spencer in York have had their hopes of £300,000 compensation dashed by a top judge.

John Thorman Heward, who was managing director of Newcastle-based shopfitters, D.H Allan & Sons Ltd, was 61 when he died in 2009 from mesothelioma, an agonising cancer of the lining of the lungs which is invariably fatal.

Mr Heward, who started working for D.H Allan at the age of 16 before rising through the ranks, blamed his illness on work he carried out for Marks & Spencer Plc between 1967 and 1984.

He was exposed to asbestos dust and fibres whilst carrying out joinery work at a store in York in 1967 and, in later years, whilst modernizing 13 M&S stores across the North East..

Although Mr Heward died years before his case came to court, he made detailed statements which were used during the hearing at London's High Court.

His wife, Catherine, did not long survive him and the case was pursued by the executors of her estate on behalf of surviving heirs.

Mr Heward had described himself as 'suit and tie man' who was unaware of the risks posed by asbestos and who did not start to wear protective clothing until 1984.

The family's barrister, David Allan QC, told Judge David Pittaway QC that exposure to dust from asbestos tiles and pipe lagging whilst carrying out joinery work and inspecting ceilings in M&S stores was to blame for his "painful and distressing terminal illness".

The barrister pointed to one alleged incident of exposure in particular, saying that, in 1967, Mr Heward was working beneath an asbestos ceiling which was being fitted at the York branch and quantities of asbestos dust were "falling directly on him."

The QC added that, although D.H Allan did not work exclusively for M&S, 80% of its work was based at the company's stores.

The court heard that, during the 1960's and 1970's, M&S stores underwent modernization, including having suspended ceilings made of Asbestelux tiles fitted.

After 1984, M&S put in place protocols to protect workers from asbestos, but lawyers argued that Mr Heward's exposure up to that point was already enough to hand him a death sentence decades later.

Today Judge Pittaway said that asbestos had at the time been "used extensively" in M&S stores, particularly in ceiling tiles.

He added: "I am satisfied that Mr Heward contracted mesothelioma whilst he was carrying out work for D.H Allan at M&S stores sometime between 1967 and 1984"

However, dismissing the compensation claim, the judge said M&S had employed specialist contractors to carry out the work at the York store.

By the standards of the time, he ruled, it was "not reasonably foreseeable" that the presence of asbestos would pose a threat to the health of others working there.

Knowledge of the asbestos hazard was still developing in the 1960s and 1970s, and the level of Mr Heward's exposure when inspecting and surveying ceiling voids would have been lower than hygiene or control limits in force at the time.

The judge concluded: "It follows that, in my view, the claim against M&S fails on both the exposure to asbestos that the deceased experienced in the York store in 1967, and in stores subsequently, whilist inspecting store premises"