Court orders firm to pay hospice costs

A judge awarded St Joseph's Hospice in Hackney, east London, over 10,000, plus interest, against a company held liable over the death of one of its patients from asbestos-related lung cancer.

James Wilson, who lived in a flat in Tower Hamlets, died in March 2007 of mesothelioma contracted as a result of exposure to asbestos while working for Foster Wheeler Ltd in the early 1950s as a boiler erector at Dartford power station.

Judge Anthony Thornton QC, sitting at the High Court in London, said: "Throughout the time that he was working there, he was neither warned by his employer of the dangers of this exposure nor was he provided with respiratory protection."

His daughters Catherine Drake and Tina Starkey, executrices of his estate, won damages against the company on behalf of themselves, Mr Wilson's children and grandchildren – but they also put in a claim on behalf of St Joseph's.

"The type of claim that is made for hospice care is novel," the judge said.