In 2019, Rospotrebnadzor revealed violations in the autonomous public health care institution JSC Amurskaya municipal children’s hospital, which led to the mass infection by hepatitis C of the 169 children receiving treatment from oncologic illnesses. In that situation the families of affected children suffered heavily and had to plan further tactics of treatment, because hepatitis C by itself is a contraindication to many ways of oncology treatment. The lawyers of S&K Vertical submitted lawsuits on behalf of 23 families seeking for them compensation of moral harm (21 lawsuits in Blagoveshchensk, 1 lawsuit in Moscow, 1 lawsuit in St. Petersburg).
S&K Vertical’s legal team prepared statements of claim, analyzed particulars of each case, and developed a strategy of handing the cases taking into account that the families were located in various and rather distant regions of Russia.
At present more than RUB 11 mln has been collected, which is unprecedented: it is the first time in Russia that such numerous lawsuits have been filed by the relatives of the victims. Earlier in Russia there had not been any established judicial practice of awarding damages for moral harm in such considerable amounts to the relatives of the victims.