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A disabled BC man is finally getting thousands of dollars that he's rightfully owed from a large hospital settlement after his own mother squandered it in casinos for years.

Justin Whitson's mother gambled away his settlement fund until 2015, when he finally learned he was entitled to receive the money. Now 33, he was injured during his birth. His parents took the attending doctors and the hospital to court and they were awarded a settlement in 1996.

He was just seven years old at the time.

The settlement gave his mother, Claire-Laura Whitson, control over the money until Justin turned 19. Although he and his family tried over the years to wrangle control of the settlement from her, it took a BC Supreme Court decision on Sept. 29 for Justin to rightfully get more than $440,000 awarded to him.

The family called her "manipulative" in their pleas to the Public Guardian and Trustee as they tried to get the payments made directly to Justin, with his sister claiming Claire-Laura would go through monthly payments within a week. However, a judge ruled in 2005 that Claire-Laura would continue to oversee the money until he turned 19, despite her inability to properly account for where the money went.

Claire-Laura, however, likely will never know of Justin's recent award. Her severe dementia prompted the Public Guardian to step in and oversee her finances five years ago.

The court heard that while Justin was young, his parents used the fund to supplement their household income. Monthly payments started in 1996 at $2,500 and increased by 4 per cent annually, with three lump sum payments starting when he turned 19.

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His father, Dwight Whitson, separate from his mother in 1998, but returned temporarily as Claire-Laura was suffering from leukemia. Dwight was a lawyer, but his practice was "dwindling," according to the decision. He spent most of his time as a family caregiver, while Justin's settlement was treated as Claire-Laura's income. He left the house again in 2000.

It was Dwight who initially began asking the Public Guardian to help wrestle control of the funds away from Claire-Laura, but he spent many years estranged from Justin.

In 2006, Claire-Laura's emotional and physical abuse escalated and Justin moved in with Dwight briefly before going to cadet camp for the summer. He was only separated briefly, however, and he moved back into her Victoria-area home when she picked him up from the airport.

He came home with $300 in his wallet, which he earned while at camp. Within a few days of his return, Justin believed she took the money and he moved back into Dwight's house.

"Claire-Laura would routinely take money from his wallet," Justice Anthony Saunders said in her decision.

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The "long pattern of financial abuse" continued beyond his settlement money, including money from Justin's paper route at the age of seven. When he got older, she also stole college scholarship money from his bank account while he was in his 20s.

When Justin moved back with his father at 18, they planned for him to stay until he was 19, but he and Justin had an argument in 2008, which escalated to violence, and they stopped speaking entirely for six years.

It wasn't until 2015 that Dwight told Justin the settlement payments were supposed to start going to him directly. Justin was 25 years old at the time.

When he turned 19, there was no plan for the settlement to start going to Justin. When his mother got the first $75,000 lump sum, she gave Justin a $40,000 cheque and explained it was money from his lawsuit.

"He testified that he was perplexed, and then though that the funds would provide him with the means to escape. He deposited the money into a bank account, and moved out, renting an apartment in Surrey. He lived on his own from November 2008 to mid-February 2009," Saunders said in her decision.

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That only lasted from November 2008 to February 2009, when around $20,000 was withdrawn from his account.

That was the first of two times his mother would give him part of his $75,000 lump sum payments, which was later depleted by someone else. It wasn't until 2015 he discovered his mother had a bank card with his name on it, surmising she was stealing the money from his account.

The third and final lump sum went entirely to Justin after he finally had the settlement funds directed to his own account in 2015.

Up until then, the court found Claire-Laura stole $441,700 in money that should have gone to Justin from his nineteenth birthday in 2008 up to 2015.

Although the settlement payout was much higher, with more than $443,000 given to Claire-Laura before he turned 19, Saunders' decision focused solely on the funds after that birthday.

Saunders called Justin "remarkable," marking his educational achievements despite a "dire" prognosis at birth and developmental challenges. She added, however, Justin was subject to years of abuse throughout his life at the hands of his mother.

"She belittled, threatened, and manipulated him. She took out on Justin the anger that she felt towards Dwight. Justin found his home life chaotic, and unbearable, and used activities such as army cadets as a means of escape," Saunders said.

Saunders ruled Claire-Laura is responsible for repaying Justin the entire $441,700. However, she noted in her decision there were never plans to save settlement money over the years and she failed to account for where the money was going. Whether there is money available for the award isn't clear.

— This story was updated at 11 a.m., Oct. 10, 2023, to correctly state it was Justice Anthony Saunders who rendered the decision.

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