Chandler v Cape plc [2011] EWHC 951 (QB); [2012] EWCA Civ 525 – Law Journals

Contracting: Parenting problems

Gwendoline Davies and Malcolm Simpson look at jurisdiction and the liability of parent companies for international subsidiaries ‘In order to proceed with a claim in the UK, the claimants in Lungowe and Okpabi had to establish that the UK parent companies were liable in tort for the acts or omissions of their international subsidiaries.’ The …

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Multiple Defendants: Who to sue?

In the second of two articles Linda Jacobs looks at legal liability in multiple defendant claims ‘Where two or more tortfeasors cause different damage to the claimant, the causes of action are distinct from one another. The claimant can sue each defendant, but can only recover the extent of the damage for which each tortfeasor …

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Workplace Claims: Testing the boundaries

Gurion Taussig reviews recent significant employer’s liability cases ‘The duty upon the employer can not be easily displaced and even hazards with a low risk of eventuating will engage the PPE Regulations.’ This employer’s liability article focuses on some of the more significant decisions of the Court of Appeal in the last 18 months. During …

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Health And Safety: Cape of good hope

David Sawtell examines when a parent company may be liable in tort for the health and safety of the employees of its subsidiaries ‘The Court of Appeal made it very clear that merely because a parent company had appointed an individual as director of its subsidiary company with responsibility for health and safety matters did …

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Company: Papering over the corporate cracks

Paul Green examines recent case law on corporate liability ‘In the broadest sense, Chandler v Cape is a wake-up call that separate corporate entities are intended to be just that, rather than merely a vehicle by which risk can be compartmentalised.’For over 110 years, it has been an established legal principle that the acts and …

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Employment: Taking responsibility

David Sawtell examines liability for third parties in contracts for services Relying on this case, it will be easier for claimants to argue that a parent company should be liable for the acts or omissions of its subsidiary.A company usually accepts that it owes a duty of care to its own employees, and that it …

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Asbestos: Bad parenting

Anna Macey reports on a parent company that has been held liable to an employee of a subsidiary for negligent asbestos exposure The claimant, Mr Chandler, worked for Cape Products (Cape) for 18 months over two brief periods between 1959 and 1962. While working there he was exposed to significant amounts of asbestos dust and …

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