Joint and Several Liability in UK Law

In my opinion, the attribution of liability according to the relative degree of contribution to the chance of the disease being contracted would smooth the roughness of the justice which a rule of joint and several liability creates.

If the Fairchild principle were based upon the fiction that each Fairchild defendant had actually caused the eventual outcome, the analogy with tortfeasors each of whom had contributed to an indivisible outcome would be very close.

The common law rules that lead to liability in solidum for the whole damage have always been closely linked to the common law's approach to causation. There is no reason in principle why the former rules should not be modified as the latter approach is courageously developed to meet new situations.

HH Judge Havelock-Allen QC found that the Hawkes/Cuddy Agreement, reached sometime between January and the beginning of April 2003, contained the following terms: (1) Mr Hawkes and Mr Cuddy would each assume personal liability to repay half of the debt of £180,000 owed by Neath RFC to the WRU, (2) they would establish, as joint co-owners a new corporate entity (“newco”) to purchase the assets of Neath RFC from the WRU, and thereafter to own and manage the Club, (3) Mr Hawkes would own one share in newco and Mr Cuddy would own the other share, (4) Mr Hawkes and Mr Cuddy would each be directors of newco, (5) Mr Hawkes would concentrate on the management of Neath RFC, (6) Mr Cuddy would concentrate on the management of the regional side (Neath-Swansea Ospreys) and for that purpose would be nominated by newco to act as one of the two directors of the new entity being established to own and manage Neath-Swansea Ospreys, (7) any payments to be made by newco should be authorised by Mr Hawkes and Mr Cuddy.

Mr Cuddy replied a couple of days later that all matters had been discussed at their meeting of 19 January and that as far as he was concerned he had acted in accordance with that agreement and the Ospreys shareholders' agreement. It is now accepted that Mr Atherton was quite wrong about the existence of a cap on the liability of the Ospreys. This internal e-mail shows that his mistake was a genuine one.

Mr Rossi and Mr Stinson are not contractually entitled to enforce the clause, but Mr Donohue is, in my opinion, entitled to ask the court to enforce it by restraining the prosecution in New York of all claims within its scope in respect of which Mr Donohue would be jointly and severally liable.

As at the date of the purchase, while Mrs Hobbs no less than Mr Huntingford was assuming a liability to the lender, it was not contemplated that, as between the two of them, she would have to pay anything towards discharge of this liability.