This site uses cookies.

PI Brief Update

Chandler v Cape Case Comment - Emily Wilsdon, Pupil Barrister, Temple Garden Chambers & Reema Patel, GDL student and Bedingfield Scholar, Gray’s Inn

18/06/12. The issue in David Brian Chandler v Cape plc [2012] EWCA Civ 525 was whether a parent company (Cape) could owe a direct duty of care to protect an employee of its wholly owned subsidiary company (Cape Products) against asbestos risks. Cape appealed a decision by Wyn Williams J [2011] EWHC 951 (QB) that it owed a duty of care to Mr. Chandler on the basis that it had assumed responsibility for his health and safety at Cape Products.

The Court of Appeal, in a judgment by Arden LJ, found that it could. In so finding, the Court said that the ‘corporate veil’  remained intact. Liability was not determined by the fact of a parent-subsidiary relationship, or on the basis of an assumption of responsibility as found below, but on the application of the test in Caparo Industries plc v Dickman [1990] 2 AC 605.

Mr. Chandler, an employee of Cape Products, contracted asbestosis . He worked at an...

Image ©iStockphoto.com/hroe

Read more (PIBULJ subscribers only)...


Go back to previous page

All information on this site was believed to be correct by the relevant authors at the time of writing. All content is for information purposes only and is not intended as legal advice. No liability is accepted by either the publisher or the author(s) for any errors or omissions (whether negligent or not) that it may contain. 

The opinions expressed in the articles are the authors' own, not those of Law Brief Publishing Ltd, and are not necessarily commensurate with general legal or medico-legal expert consensus of opinion and/or literature. Any medical content is not exhaustive but at a level for the non-medical reader to understand. 

Professional advice should always be obtained before applying any information to particular circumstances.

Excerpts from judgments and statutes are Crown copyright. Any Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of OPSI and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland under the Open Government Licence.

Privacy Policy                 Legal Resources

© Copyright Law Brief Publishing Ltd, all rights reserved.
Published by Law Brief Publishing Ltd, company number 05966609, registered in the UK. Registered office address: 30 The Parks, Minehead, Somerset, TA24 8BT.

All information on this site was believed to be correct by the relevant authors at the time of writing. All content is for information purposes only and is not intended as legal advice. No liability is accepted by either the publisher or the author(s) for any errors or omissions (whether negligent or not) that it may contain. 

The opinions expressed in the articles are the authors' own, not those of Law Brief Publishing Ltd, and are not necessarily commensurate with general legal or medico-legal expert consensus of opinion and/or literature. Any medical content is not exhaustive but at a level for the non-medical reader to understand. 

Professional advice should always be obtained before applying any information to particular circumstances.

Excerpts from judgments and statutes are Crown copyright. Any Crown Copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of OPSI and the Queen’s Printer for Scotland under the Open Government Licence.