Quoted from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/29/mesothelioma-hospice-landmark-victory
Mesothelioma: Hospice wins landmark victory in asbestos cancer case
Court decision to make engineering firm pay £10,000 towards care of victim to open door for more claims from hospices
Hospices that care for victims of a form of cancer caused by asbestos exposure hope to get help with treatment costs following a landmark court ruling.
After a three-year legal battle the high court has ruled that a company that exposed a former worker, who later died of mesothelioma, to asbestos should pay for part of his hospice care.
The ruling is a major boost to hospices, which rely for much of their funding on charitable donations.
Engineering firm Foster Wheeler must pay £10,000 to St Joseph’s Hospice in Hackney, east London, for the care of James Willson, who died there in 2007 aged 76 after being exposed to asbestos at Deptford power station in the 1950s.
A bed at St Joseph’s costs around £900 a day, 35% of which the NHS pays for. As the rest comes from charity, St Joseph’s lawyers argued that companies or their insurers should be liable.
The ruling could lead to thousands of claims from hospices, with mesothelioma cases set to peak at over 2,450 a year in the next decade.
