Mr Phillips had been employed by a single employer between 1955 and 1957 and then between 1959 and 1970, during which periods he was exposed to asbestos dust. Out of the 13 years of this exposure, the insurers were on risk for 9 years between 1959 and 1968. He came to suffer and die from Mesothelioma. A judgment against the employers was entered by consent and the insurers maintained that they were only liable for the fraction of the total damages that the period of cover bore to the total period of employment and negligent exposure, relying on a rateable proportion clause and/or an implied term in the contract by reason of custom and practice or business efficacy.
Held: The arguments were rejected, applying Fairchild, which imposed liability on the employer, in any one period of exposure, for the total loss suffered. Following Fairchild, each material exposure within the total period of exposure was sufficient to give rise to liability on the part of the employer to the victim for 100% of the damages sustained.
Judges:
The Honourable Mr Justice Eady
Citations:
[2003] EWHC 1084 (QB), [2004] Lloyd’s Rep IR 426, [2004] LRIR 426
Links:
Cited by:
Cited – International Energy Group Ltd v Zurich Insurance Plc UK ComC 24-Jan-2012
The defendant insurance company was found liable to contribute under insurance it had written, 22% of the compensation it had paid out in a mesothelioma claim brought in Guernsey by a Mr le Carre. The company was successor to a company which had . .
Cited – Zurich Insurance Plc UK Branch v International Energy Group Ltd SC 20-May-2015
A claim had been made for mesothelioma following exposure to asbestos, but the claim arose in Guernsey. Acknowledging the acute difficultis particular to the evidence in such cases, the House of Lords, in Fairchild. had introduced the Special Rule . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Insurance
Updated: 07 June 2022; Ref: scu.182224