Employers’ duty to wives

Maguire v Harland Wolff plc and another QBD TLR 29 April

The claimant, aged 67, was diagnosed with mesothelioma and had only a short time to live. Her full-time carer was her husband, who had been exposed to asbestos dust during his employment in the defendant’s shipyard at the time of their marriage until 1965. The defendants accepted that they were in breach of their duty to Mr Maguire but denied they owed any duty to his wife because it was not foreseeable that she was at risk having regard to her exposure to asbestos dust and the state of knowledge at the time of the risk.