The supreme court has ruled, on liability for occupational disease, that each company is liable for its own share of the compensation caused by the occupational disease of the workers. It is therefore considered that it is possible to individualise the liability of each company according to the length of service of the worker concerned.
Occupational disease
A worker, who is recognised as being permanently and totally disabled, sued the companies he had worked for, claiming compensation for damages. Following the legal proceedings, the company was ordered to pay 52,000 euros in compensation to the worker with joint and several liability, as it was not possible to measure the degree of imputation of liability that corresponded to each company.
Individualised responsibility
With regard to this event, the supreme court has already clarified the liability of mutual insurance companies in respect of occupational diseases, holding that liability must be shared in proportion to the time of exposure of the worker to the risks.
According to the court, joint and several liability must be declared when it is not possible to individualise the liability of each company, so that, when it is possible to individualise the liability of each of them, joint and several liability can be applied on the basis of the time of provision of the service.
In this case, it is possible to consider the liability as joint and several and therefore substitute the joint and several liability of the judgement, based on the time of the worker's service.
Source: Legal news
