Health and safety breach could lead to no win no fee claim
A company has admitted health and safety breaches due to professional negligence which killed a young woman in 2003.
The 32-year-old Polish-born woman was entering a lift at a London gym when it suddenly fell, crushing her between the lift and the lift shaft.
The company had long sought to avoid taking responsibility for the lift accident but during the first day of a trial at Southwark Crown Court, when faced with allegations of improper lift maintenance and failure to investigate previous safety incidents, the firm admitted public liability and one charge under the Health and Safety at Work Act.
However, the woman's widower described it as "a bitter pill to swallow". "They didn't have the decency to say seven years ago: We are guilty.' And now it's too late," he said.
"We didn't hear a single sorry or anything like that at all. It's a very bitter pill to swallow."
Potentially, the company's lift accident admission could help pave the way for the widower to receive a multi-million pound no win no fee compensation settlement.
Updated on 12/03/2010