Rehana Azib examines recent decisions on liability & quantum
There have been two interesting decisions in the area of employer’s liability and health and safety, both for and against employers.
Employers liability
David Brian Chandler v Cape plc In David Brian Chandler v Cape plc [2012] EWCA Civ 525, [2012] All ER (D) 123 (Apr), an asbestos exposure case, the Court of Appeal outlined the circumstances in which it could impose responsibility on a parent company for the health and safety of employees of a subsidiary company which was no longer in existence.
In this case, the subsidiary company was in the business of manufacturing incombustible asbestos and while in its employment, the claimant was exposed to asbestos dust and later contracted asbestosis, some 45 years after his employment with the company had ended. Unfortunately, the company had had no policy of insurance that would indemnify it against claims for asbestosis (the claimant’s employment pre-dated the Employers’ Liability Compulsory Insurance Act 1969). The claimant issued proceedings against the parent company on the basis that it was a joint tortfeasor who
