Cases Professional Negligence
Judgment Date: 25 Oct 2018
A solicitor instructed to deal with a client's claim under an accident, death and disablement insurance policy had not been under a duty to warn his client about his rights arising out of the same accident under a long-term disability insurance policy which was not covered by the retainer, nor had a duty arisen to warn him to take advice.
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Judgment Date: 08 Aug 2018
The court refused a bankrupt's application for permission to bring a claim against his trustee in bankruptcy pursuant to the Insolvency Act 1986 s.304, where there was no reasonably meritorious cause of action and where the proposed application raised issues which had already been decided against the bankrupt in an application under s.303.
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Judgment Date: 19 May 2017
The claimant, which was alleging negligence on the part of the defendant solicitors in relation to amendments made to a company's articles of association in 2004, had no prospect of defeating the solicitors' reliance on the expiry of the limitation period.
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Judgment Date: 20 Dec 2016
In a negligence claim against accountants arising from the recommendation of tax-avoidance schemes in 2001 and 2003, it would not be appropriate, subject to one exception, to allow the claimants to amend the particulars of claim. The new allegations represented new claims and did not arise out of the same or substantially the same facts as had already been pleaded.
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Judgment Date: 02 Feb 2016
A claim for breach of duty against solicitors for negligent drafting of documents was out of time and the claimant had insufficiently pleaded deliberate wrongdoing so as to postpone commencement of the limitation period. However, a claim raised in replies to further information that the solicitors had acted without instructions had an arguable prospect of success and arose out of the same facts, so the claimant would be given the opportunity to apply for permission to amend to add that claim.
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Judgment Date: 18 Dec 2012
In view of its very wide ambit, the test in Owners of the Sardinia Sulcis v Owners of the Al Tawwab [1991] 1 Lloyd's Rep. 201 as to whether it was possible to identify an intended claimant or defendant "by reference to a description which was more or less specific to the particular case" had to be interpreted as meaning to identify the relevant description of the intended party by reference to what description was material from a legal point of view to the claim made.
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Judgment Date: 27 Nov 2012
A limited liability partnership that had suffered loss as a result of a valuation company's alleged negligent advice on a property's value was allowed to provide draft amended particulars of claim to include a claim for the actual net loss that it had suffered. Although there was no diminution in value claim, it was arguable that there would be more information at trial to show that there were special circumstances within the meaning of Hadley v Baxendale such that the normal diminution in value rule did not apply to the partnership's claim for damages.
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Judgment Date: 27 Jul 2012
The claimant had established that a painting bought by it at an auction by Christie's was a forgery; it was entitled to a refund under a limited warranty given by Christie's, but the latter's conditions of sale barred the claimant's claims in negligence and misrepresentation.
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Judgment Date: 14 Dec 2011
In assessing the retrospective market valuation of a property a valuation method which relied upon comparable sales evidence obtained from the Land Registry for the period immediately prior to the historical valuation was to be preferred to one which primarily relied upon the application of a price per square metre to the floor area of the property.
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Judgment Date: 15 Jul 2011
A claim for damages for breach of duty of care brought by a director against a company's auditors was struck out where the director had failed to indicate any special circumstances or a special relationship which would give rise to a duty of care.
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Judgment Date: 04 Mar 2010
Joining the legal owner to proceedings in respect of damage to property would suffice to enable the beneficial owner to recover, subject to the rules of remoteness and damage, for all the loss which it had suffered and it did not matter that the beneficial owner was not in possession of the property. An oil company who was the beneficial owner of tanks and pipelines destroyed following explosions at the Buncefield oil storage terminal for which another oil company was liable was not, therefore, precluded from claiming damages for economic loss.
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Judgment Date: 31 Jul 2008
The appellant firm of surveyors and valuers (X) appealed against a decision giving judgment for the respondent mortgage lender (P) on its claim for breach of contract. P had been approached by a borrower for a loan to be secured by a mortgage on a property. X purportedly provided P with a valuation of the property, and P advanced a sum of money to the borrower based on that valuation.
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Judgment Date: 26 May 2004
Property, and not on the basis of a vacant possession valuation (which would have produced a higher figure, and so a lower damages award).
The Court of Appeal dismissed appeals by both parties.
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Judgment Date: 31 Jan 2002
A shareholder could not sue where his pleaded losses were merely a reflection of the losses suffered by the company in which he had an interest.
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Judgment Date: 19 Feb 2001
No liability yet existed as between the third defendant accountants and the first to third claimants, as they had yet to suffer any loss as the result of allegedly negligent misrepresentations as to the financial position of the second defendant.
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Judgment Date: 01 Jan 2001
A managing agent who, in advance of completion of a deed of surrender, accepted the return of the keys, was liable in negligence to the landlord for the loss of the premium payable on completion: the landlord's solicitors were not negligent for having "affirmed" that surrender.
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Judgment Date: 26 Jun 2000
The negligent failure of a solicitor to advise the claimant as to the effect of a change of control article in the articles of association of a joint venture company had not caused the claimant any loss since the court was satisfied that, even given the correct advice, he would have accepted the article.
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Judgment Date: 11 Apr 2000
In considering the time at which a lender was to be imputed to have knowledge of negligent overvaluation of a property for the purposes of s.14A Limitation Act 1980, the question was the time at which it would have been reasonable for a prudent lender to have sought a retrospective valuation of the property and, on the facts of the case, there was no evidence that that time should have been before the lender obtained possession of the property.
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Judgment Date: 30 Mar 2000
Solicitors who negligently failed to pursue a request for sight of a copy of a building regulation approval were liable for the loss sustained by the claimants on their subsequent acquisition of a defective property.
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Judgment Date: 17 Feb 2000
Although there was a presumption that the value of a 90-day sale by mortgagees in possession would normally be lower than the open market value, the true answer always depended on the actual market conditions which prevailed at the time of valuation.
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