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Hospices throughout the UK may benefit from a High Court ruling that an employer should pay compensation for a former employee's end-of-life treatment.
The man at the centre of the case, whose daughters brought it on his behalf, had contracted the asbestos-related industrial disease through work building boilers in the 1950s.
The victim's family wished to make a payment to the London hospice where the man was treated but felt it was more appropriate for the employer whose negligence had allowed him to work in hazardous conditions to contribute so decided to bring the case.
The court ruled the former employer should pay £10,000 to the hospice which would cover the cost of the palliative care received by the man.
Although hospices receive a percentage of their funds from the NHS, all of them supplement their income with voluntary fund-raising and donations, many of which are made by grateful families of patients.
A lawyer involved in the case said, "There is no doubt that justice has been done and that this landmark decision will be welcomed by the family and other victims of asbestos-related diseases, who rely on palliative care to relieve their suffering.
"It also now provides a legal basis for hospices to be repaid for the tremendously valuable work they do where their care has been needed as a result of someone else's wrong doing."
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