Mother takes government to High Court over daughter’s air pollution death
Mother of nine-year-old Ella Adoo Kissi-Debrah is claiming damages for more than £250,000 from the government after her daughter suffered a fatal asthma attack due to exposure to air pollution.
Ella Adoo Kissi-Debrah in 2013 CREDIT: Family Handout/PA Wire
Air pollution was ruled as a cause for the death of Ella Kissi-Debrah in 2020.
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Rosumand Adoo Kissi-Debrah is taking legal action against the government by suing three departments for compensation over her daughters ‘illness and premature death’.
Rosumand’s lawyers say this claim is the “first of its kind” and insists that the claim is “not about money”. She wants to invoke change and focuses on “seeking vindication for the death of Ella”.
After a coroners’ report was published in 2020, Ella became the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed on her death certificate. Growing up only 25-metres from the South Circular in Lewisham, Ella became ill at just seven years old. In the years before her death she developed asthma and experienced seizures which led to over thirty hospital visits within three years.
Colin Thomann, representing the Government, has claimed that the £250,000 claim is “significantly overestimated” and that the government disputes it in its “entirety”. The Government say the maximum claim could only be worth £30,000 if successful.
Since Ella’s death, her mother Rosamund has campaigned to raise awareness of the dangers of air pollution in the capital.
This comes after the proposal of The Clean Air Act, which was read out by Green MP Caroline Lucas in the House of Commons. The law, sometimes referred to as Ella’s Law, hopes to make clean air a human right for all.
Ravi Mehta, representing Ella’s mother, said in a preliminary hearing in London that the case is “no ordinary personal injury claim”.
If successful, it will be the first claim to establish what Rosamund has described as the ‘right to clean air’ under the Human Rights Act.
Ravi Mehta, lawyer representing Rosamund.
Judge David Cook, who led the preliminary hearings, said that a further hearing should be held on July 15.
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HeadlineMother takes government to High Court over daughter’s air pollution death
Short HeadlineMother takes government to court over death of her child caused by pollution.
StandfirstMother of nine-year-old Ella Adoo Kissi-Debrah is claiming damages for more than £250,000 from the government after her daughter suffered a fatal asthma attack due to exposure to air pollution.
Rosumand Adoo Kissi-Debrah is taking legal action against the government by suing three departments for compensation over her daughters ‘illness and premature death’.
Rosumand’s lawyers say this claim is the “first of its kind” and insists that the claim is “not about money”. She wants to invoke change and focuses on “seeking vindication for the death of Ella”.
After a coroners’ report was published in 2020, Ella became the first person in the UK to have air pollution listed on her death certificate. Growing up only 25-metres from the South Circular in Lewisham, Ella became ill at just seven years old. In the years before her death she developed asthma and experienced seizures which led to over thirty hospital visits within three years.
Colin Thomann, representing the Government, has claimed that the £250,000 claim is “significantly overestimated” and that the government disputes it in its “entirety”. The Government say the maximum claim could only be worth £30,000 if successful.
Since Ella’s death, her mother Rosamund has campaigned to raise awareness of the dangers of air pollution in the capital.
This comes after the proposal of The Clean Air Act, which was read out by Green MP Caroline Lucas in the House of Commons. The law, sometimes referred to as Ella’s Law, hopes to make clean air a human right for all.
Ravi Mehta, representing Ella’s mother, said in a preliminary hearing in London that the case is “no ordinary personal injury claim”.
If successful, it will be the first claim to establish what Rosamund has described as the ‘right to clean air’ under the Human Rights Act.
Ravi Mehta, lawyer representing Rosamund.
Judge David Cook, who led the preliminary hearings, said that a further hearing should be held on July 15.
