With the recent growth of individuals facing life-threatening illnesses as a result of asbestos inhalation, it is not surprising that a wide range of cases has been brought, in an attempt to recover some of the financial costs associated with dealing with these injuries. One of the difficulties that traditionally have been associated with this type of disease is the fact that, although the inhalation may have occurred in one year, it may take a considerable period of time before it becomes evident. Therefore, the insurance policy that may have been in place, when the individual was employed at the time at which the inhalation occurred, may no longer be in place, or the individual may have changed policies and the victims may have no obvious recourse against this original insurance policy.
During this case, it was decided that the insurance policy in place at the time at which the inhalation occurred would be the relevant insurance policy. However, there have been other cases which decided that this would not be the case and confusion now exists in terms of when the original insurance policy should be relied upon. The focus of the analysis was on the wording of the insurance policy and therefore insurers are likely to be much more careful, in terms of the way in which they offer coverage.
