A situation could arise within your business organisation in which a worker who renders or has rendered his/her services in your company suffers an occupational illness and, due to this, claims compensation for damages through the courts.

Unlike what happens with an occupational accident, even though it is exteriorised at a certain time, an occupational illness quietly and treacherously develops over time due to the worker being exposed to certain substances, elements or working conditions and, as a general rule, this exposure takes place in all the companies where the worker has rendered his/her services.

The Spanish courts have been considering that all the companies involved in causing the damage that has resulted in the occupational illness must be held severally and not jointly liable due to deeming that it is impossible to determine the level the liability can be claimed against each of them, but now the Supreme Court has unified doctrine, determining the joint liability of the companies responsible. What led to this change?

In order to better understand this situation, we will analyse the case in-depth:

What happened in this specific case?

In the case in question here, the worker who filed the claim rendered his services for specific temporary periods of time as a quarry worker in various companies. While rendering his services he was exposed to silica dust that caused complicated pneumoconiosis and a serious reduction in his total lung capacity.

Due to all this exposure, the worker was declared with absolute permanent disability and hence filed a claim against the companies where he had worked, petitioning compensation for the damages caused due to his occupational illness from being continually exposed to such silica dust.

In this case, the Labour Court admitted the claim and by virtue of its judgement ordered compensation to be paid for the damages, as petitioned, ruling that the liability must be jointly shared among the companies found at fault bearing in mind the time the worker had worked in each one.

After the relevant appeal for reversal had been lodged, the High Court of Justice ruled against the aforementioned judgement, declaring that the liability must be several and not joint, by deeming it was not possible to individualise the liability of each company involved in causing the damage.

What did the Supreme Court rule?

The Supreme Court concluded that the doctrine that the liability arising from the benefits for the occupational illness contingency acknowledged for the worker must be charged to the different companies in proportion to the time the worker was exposed to the aforementioned risks is fully applicable to the compensation for the damages caused by this occupational illness. Therefore, the liability for compensation, compensation for damages, must be imposed in proportion to the time the worker was exposed to the risk, which means that such liability must be individualised for each company depending on the time the worker rendered his services in each one.

However, liability is imposed severally in cases when multiple agents have been involved in the reason causing the damage and it is impossible to individualise the contribution of each one to such damage; therefore the specific liability cannot be determined.

Conclusions

We can conclude from this novating judgement of the Supreme Court that finding companies severally liable for the compensation of damages caused by an occupational illness must be ruled when it is impossible to individualise the liability of each company involved in causing such damages. However, when the worker has successively rendered his services in the companies causing the damages and the liability of each one can be individualised according to the time the worker rendered his services there, the companies can hence be found jointly liable.

Do any of your workers suffer from an occupational illness? Has a claim been filed against you for damages caused by an occupational illness? Please do not hesitate to contact me, judicial judgements are not always applicable in the same way to all cases and the special features of each case must be assessed in order to find the most suitable solution.