PA Regional Newswire
LONDON, England — A company boss from Bedfordshire who married the mother of his love child less than a year after being widowed won nearly £120,000 damages when a judge ruled that paramedics were “negligent’’ days before his previous wife’s death.
Nicolas Taaffe and former mistress Leslie Zobiah married nine months after Eleanor Taaffe died of a heart attack, the High Court heard.
Mrs. Taaffe complained of “serious marriage problems’’ shortly before her death at the age of 50, judge Sir Robert Nelson was told.
But Mr. Taaffe, 68, of Leighton Buzzard, told the court that at the time of Mrs. Taaffe’s death his affair with Ms Zobiah was “in the past’’.
He said he decided to stay with Mrs. Taaffe and had “no intention’’ of leaving or getting divorced.
Mrs. Taaffe died after a heart attack five years ago, Sir Robert was told.
Five days before Mrs. Taaffe died an ambulance was called after she experienced “severe’’ chest pains, the judge heard. Paramedics did not consider it necessary to advise Mrs. Taaffe, a quality control manager at a pharmaceutical firm, to go to hospital.
Mr. Taaffe, who runs an aviation engineering firm, said “failure’’ to give that advice was “negligent’’ and sued the East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust.
The trust denied negligence and said the paramedics “acted properly’’. Bosses said ``digestion-type pain’’ had subsided by the time paramedics arrived and Miss Taaffe appeared “essentially healthy’’.
Sir Robert said the “central issue on liability’’ was “whether the failure to advise Mrs. Taaffe to attend hospital was negligent’’. He ruled in Mr. Taaffe’s favour, following a trial in London in February, and awarded a total of £119,048 damages.
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