Merkin, Rob; Steele, Jenny --- "Historic Asbestos Exposure and Liability Insurance: Issues of Aggregation and Reinsurance" [2011] ELECD 631; in Steele, Jenny; van Boom, H. Willem (eds), "Mass Justice" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2011)

Book Title: Mass Justice

Editor(s): Steele, Jenny; van Boom, H. Willem

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781849805063

Section: Chapter 10

Section Title: Historic Asbestos Exposure and Liability Insurance: Issues of Aggregation and Reinsurance

Author(s): Merkin, Rob; Steele, Jenny

Number of pages: 18

Extract:

10. Historic asbestos exposure and
liability insurance: issues of
aggregation and reinsurance
Rob Merkin and Jenny Steele

1. INTRODUCTION

Claims for compensation for asbestos-related disease raise particular
issues of "mass justice", rather different from the issues associated with
the design of group litigation mechanisms, for example. The issues posed
by the mass nature of the claims have in principle been removed from the
claim made by the injured party or dependant, and arise rather at the level
of insurance, as numerous liabilities are dealt with by employers, their
insurers, and their reinsurers. However, it has not been entirely possible
to insulate claimants from the litigation which surrounds this level of the
picture. Contest over the final destination of the liabilities has to some
extent influenced both the law and the potential for settlement of claims at
the level of tort liability. In the UK specifically,1 asbestos-related diseases
have given rise to mass claiming against a range of former employers. The
processes of litigation available to claimants are generally orthodox,2 but
the principles developed in response to such tort claims have posed legal
problems which cascade down to challenge the underlying mechanisms of
loss distribution through the insurance market. The effects of mass claim-
ing and the legal response to such claims are felt primarily at the level of
insurance and reinsurance; and it is insurers ­ with whom the majority of
liabilities are ultimately placed ­ who are to a large extent dictating the
pattern of litigation. They ...