... had sued had caused the disease, or made a material contribution to it. The House of Lords, however, held that in the special circumstances of the case it was sufficient for the claimants to prove that the negligence of the particular employers had increased the risk of the employees contracting the disease. Consequently, the House of Lords allowed the appeals and held that the defendant employers were liable for the employees' diseases. Further, the House of Lords held that each employer was liable to compensate each employee in full, even if that employer had only been responsible for a small proportion of the asbestos inhaled by the employee. Comments Lord Nicholls started his brief judgement by explaining that any outcome other than a victory for the claimants would have been "deeply offensive to instinctive notions of what justice requires and fairness demands", and continued that "The real difficulty lies in elucidating in ...

See this essay or coursework document in full right now