Mcgregor v. Genco (FC) Ltd: Time and Duty - Simon Morrow & Malcolm Keen, BLM
16/08/14. An employer’s duty at common law is to take reasonable care to protect its employees from a foreseeable risk of injury. In mesothelioma and other asbestos-related illness cases, foreseeability of the risk of injury has a particularly significant role. The recent High Court mesothelioma case McGregor v. Genco (FC) Ltd [2014] EWHC 1376 (QB) provides guidance on considering liability today for a breach of duty which occurred many years ago.
The decision
In McGregor, the claimant worked at a department store in Liverpool in the 1970s and early 1980s. For a period in 1976, demolition and installation work on escalators took place. Asbestos insulating board was used in the old and the new escalators. The claimant described her workplace as extremely dusty. She was diagnosed with mesothelioma in August 2012. The judge dismissed the claim. She accepted that the claimant was exposed to asbestos for a period of months in 1976, that exposure was light, but that this exposure to asbestos probably caused her mesothelioma. The judge concluded that the safety precautions in place (floor to ceiling enclosure) were adequate at the time, though not by today’s standards. She then considered whether there was a further duty to make enquiries as the works progressed. The judge found that there was nothing which ought to have alerted the defendant that the precautions were inadequate and required alteration. She concluded that there was no reason in...
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