Alistair Kinley considers contributions, qualifications & costs
Two appeal cases nearly exactly a year apart deal with subtly different points of claims for contribution between defendants and with costs protection. Both cases arose out of sport or adventure activities.
In the first, Wagenaar v Weekend Travel Ltd [2014] EWCA Civ 1105, [2014] All ER (D) 24 (Aug), the claimant was injured while skiing in France in 2007 and claimed (under the 1992 Package Travel Regulations) against the tour operator. The second case, South West Strategic Health Authority v Bay Island Voyages [2015] EWCA Civ 708, [2015] All ER (D) 165 (Jul), arose from an incident in a rigid inflatable boat in the Bristol Channel in 2008 (and was brought under the Athens Convention).
Wagenaar
In Wagenaar , the claim was funded by a household legal expenses insurer and therefore the claimant had neither entered into a conditional fee agreement nor taken out after-the-event (ATE) insurance. Proceedings were issued in March 2010. The defendant tour operator’s solicitors subsequently joined the ski guide as a third party, seeking a claim for contribution. The tour
