Source: All England Reporter
Publisher Citation: [2002] All ER (D) 555 (May)
Neutral Citation: [2002] EWCA Civ 852
Court: Court of Appeal, Civil Division
Judge:

Rix and Arden LJJ
Representation Simon Edwards (instructed by Palmers, Basildon) for the claimant.
  Edward Pepperall (instructed by Lee Crowder, Birmingham) for the defendant.
Judgment Dates: 14 May 2002

Catchwords

Contract - Terms of employment - Construction - Claimant a member of defendant's health insurance scheme - Claimant incapacitated after suffering injury at work - Defendant paying claimant benefit under health insurance scheme - Defendant's insurers refusing to continue payment of benefit - Insurers alleging claimant not totally incapacitated - Judge finding terms of health insurance scheme as incorporated in employee handbook precluding payment of benefit without total incapacity - Whether alternative terms of scheme contained within leaflet - Whether defendant estopped from defending claim - Whether claim an abuse of process.

The Case

In the instant case, the judge had been entitled to find that an employee's handbook had incorporated the terms of a permanent health insurance scheme, rather than a leaflet, and that the definition of total disablement in the handbook rendered the insurance scheme an any occupation scheme, rather than a normal occupation scheme as suggested by the leaflet, so that the claimant, who was not incapable of any work, would not be entitled to benefit under the scheme.

Practice Areas

If you are a LexisLibrary subscriber you can read more about this case here.

Lexis®Library

  • An Official transcript is the final version of the judgment prepared by shorthand writers. LexisLibrary contains all judgments from the High Court and aboveView Judgment
  • The All England Law Reports comprises judgments with headnotes and catchwords indicating the area of law and key issues of the case prepared by legally qualified editorsFind AllER Reports
  • Cases related to this particular case that are related to, or discuss this caseView related cases
  • Commentary discussing this particular case from LexisLibrary's comprehensive range of titles including Butterworths, Halsbury's and TolleyView related commentary