Law Bulletin - November 2005

Dual vicarious liability for same act shared by employer and non-employer [Liability]

The claimant had a factory and hired D1 to fit some air conditioning. He sub contracted the work out to D2. D2 employed some fitters from D3.

Stress case upheld: working time regs discussed [Liability]

The Claimant was a hotel pub manager from August 1999 until his breakdown on 15 May 2000. In April 2000 he lost two key employees and one member of administrative staff. This added to his workload significantly. There was an ongoing issue that he had no assistant manager.

Street Lighting [Liability]

The claimant was cycling along a cycle path in the dark and hit a bollard designed to prevent cars entering the path from the opposite side.

Slipping as you clean around oil [Liability]

The claimant was cleaning a machine and the floor around it as part of his work . He slipped on oil . His case was that oil ran off the machine as he cleaned .

Can you Handle it? [Liability]

First test lift after injury and rehab' causes another injury

Asbestos cases and non-employer occupiers [Liability]

A member of the asbestos team considers such claims and suggests the strongest route is the Factories Act 1961, applying the judgement of Fairchild in support of that and in general feels the cases are only likely to succeed in factories. He explains why the Occupiers’ Liability Act is of no use and analyses all possible routes.

Control of noise at work regulations 2005 [New Legislation]

These new Regulations will come into force on 6 April 2006.

Limitation [Practice and Procedure]

There has been a lot of publicity over the rejection by the court of the claim by a woman who sued a man who attempted to rape her, bringing the action after she found out that he had won the lottery.

Periodical payments in NHS cases [Damages]

In the October Bulletin we set out the advantages and disadvantages of periodical payments. Robin Oppenheim, Doughty Street Chambers, has reported that the NHSLA has revealed that, where a defendant becomes a Foundation Trust, protection afforded by the NHS (Residual Liabilities) Act 1996 does not apply, and such a trust can become insolvent.