Supreme Court holds that an insurer must cover a mesothelioma claim in full (even if the total period of exposure was longer than the policy period), but a contribution can be claimed from other insurers/the insured.
The claimant, a solvent Guernsey company, employed Mr Carré for 27 years. Mr Carré was exposed to asbestos dust during the whole of his employment with the claimant and he contracted mesothelioma. The claimant took out insurance with the defendant insurer for 6 of those 27 years. Other than a two year period when another insurer was on risk, the claimant did not have any other insurance cover during the remaining period of Mr Carré's employment (compulsory employers' liability insurance only having come into force in Guernsey in 1993). The claimant reached a settlement with Mr Carré shortly before his death and sought to recover the full amount of that payment from the defendant. The defendant argued that it was only required to pay an amount proportionate to the relationship between the policy period and the total period of Mr Carré's exposure by the claimant (ie 6/27ths).
At first instance, the insurer won (the judge emphasising that the Compensation Act 2006 which had reversed the decision of Barker v Corus (2006) did not apply in Guernsey (broadly, Barker had held that an employer was liable only for his proportion of loss where more than one employer had exposed an employee to asbestos)). The Court of...
