The Case

Practice Civil litigation. A practice direction was handed down by the President of the Queen's Bench Division concerning the transfer of claims where an Employers' Liability insurance policy ('the Policy') has been or is alleged to have been provided to an employer ('the Insured') for a period of insurance ('the Period of Insurance') during which the Insured exposed an employee to asbestos; 1.2 after the expiry of the Period of Insurance, the employee has been diagnosed as suffering from mesothelioma; 1.3 the Insured has been alleged or held to be liable to the employee in respect of the mesothelioma as a consequence of the exposure during the Period of Insurance; 1.4 the Policy wording was expressed as providing Employers' Liability cover in respect of injuries and-or diseases 'sustained' or 'contracted' or 'occurring' (or some similar wording) during the Period of Insurance; and an insurer contends (whether by way of claim, defence or counterclaim) either (a) that such Policy wording does not oblige the insurer to indemnify the Insured in respect of the insured's liabilities to the employee arising from the employee's development of mesothelioma ['the EL Policy Trigger Issue'], or (b) that such Policy wording obliges the insurer which was on risk at the time that the mesothelioma first began to develop, to indemnify the Insured.