Category: Professional Negligence

Haithwaite v Thomson Snell and Passmore (A Firm): QBD 30 Mar 2009

The claimant sought damages from his former solicitors for admitted professional negligence. The court considered the loss suffered in the handling of his claim against a health authority. The solicitors received advice after issuing that the claimant was a patient and therefore required consent to issue proceedings. Having received that consent they were then advised that he was no longer a patient.
Held: The court found that he would have had a 30% chance of establishing negligence against the hospital, and calculated the losses accordingly.

Nicol J
[2009] EWHC 647 (QB), [2009] 15 EG 99, [2009] PNLR 27
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Mount v Baker Austin CA 18-Feb-1998
The Defendant solicitors had allowed the Plaintiff’s claim to be struck out for want of prosecution. The court considered how to calculate the value of the loss of the chance of pursuing the claim: ‘1. The legal burden lies on the plaintiff to prove . .
Cited – Hanif v Middleweeks (a firm) CA 19-Jul-2000
The client was the co-owner of a nightclub which had been destroyed by fire. The insurers had issued proceedings for a declaration of non-liability, on the ground (among others) that the fire had been started deliberately by Mr Hanif’s co-owner. Mr . .
Cited – Dixon v Clement Jones Solicitors (A Firm) CA 8-Jul-2004
The defendant firm had negligently allowed a claim for damages against a firm of accountants to become statute barred. The defendants said the claim was of no or little value, since the claimant would have proceeded anyway.
Held: The court had . .
Cited – Masterman-Lister v Brutton and Co, Jewell and Home Counties Dairies (No 1) CA 19-Dec-2002
Capacity for Litigation
The claimant appealed against dismissal of his claims. He had earlier settled a claim for damages, but now sought to re-open it, and to claim in negligence against his former solicitors, saying that he had not had sufficient mental capacity at the . .
Cited – Sharif and Others v Garrett and Co CA 31-Jul-2001
The applicants sought damages from the defendant solicitors who had failed to prosecute properly a claim for damages. Their building was damaged by fire, but they had not been insured. The action was against the brokers. The court had awarded them . .
Cited – Hatswell v Goldbergs (a firm) CA 2002
The claimant sought damages from his solicitors where his claim for medical negligence was struck out for delay. The High Court declared his claim as of no value.
Held: The underlying claim in medical negligence was made simply impossible by a . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Professional Negligence, Damages

Updated: 01 November 2021; Ref: scu.326985

Cave v Robinson Jarvis and Rolf (a Firm): HL 25 Apr 2002

An action for negligence against a solicitor was defended by saying that the claim was out of time. The claimant responded that the solicitor had not told him of the circumstances which would lead to the claim, and that deliberate concealment should extend the limitation period.
Held: Brocklesby was wrongly decided. Section 32 should deprive a defendant of his limitation defence where either he took active steps to conceal his failure, or the failure itself was deliberate and the concealment might not be discovered for sometime. Where the failing was non-deliberate negligence, a failure to disclose was not concealment. Deliberate commission did not require unconscionable behaviour, but was still to be contrasted with behaviour which was accidental, or inadvertent.
Lord Millettt said: ‘As I have explained, in enacting the 1980 Act Parliament substituted ‘deliberate concealment’ for ‘concealed fraud’. This is a different and more appropriate concept. It cannot be assumed that the law remained the same. But reference to the old law explains why Parliament enacted section 32(2) and did not rely on section 32(1)(b) alone to cover the whole ground. With all reference to fraud or conscious impropriety omitted, there was an obvious risk that ‘deliberate concealment’ might be construed in its natural sense as meaning ‘active concealment’ and not as embracing mere non-disclosure. Section 32(2) was therefore enacted to cover cases where active concealment should not be required. But such cases were limited in two respects: first, the defendant must have been guilty of a deliberate commission of a breach of duty; and secondly, the circumstances must make it unlikely that the breach of duty will be discovered for some time.
Given that section 32(2) is (or at least may be) required to cover cases of non-disclosure rather than active concealment, the reason for limiting it to the deliberate commission of a breach of duty becomes clear. It is only where the defendant is aware of his own deliberate wrongdoing that it is appropriate to penalise him for failing to disclose it.
In my opinion, section 32 deprives a defendant of a limitation defence in two situations: (i) where he takes active steps to conceal his own breach of duty after he has become aware of it; and (ii) where he is guilty of deliberate wrongdoing and conceals or fails to disclose it in circumstances where it is unlikely to be discovered for some time. But it does not deprive a defendant of a limitation defence where he is charged with negligence if, being unaware of his error or that he has failed to take proper care, there has been nothing for him to disclose.’
Lord Scott said: ‘If the claimant can show that the defendant knew he was committing a breach of duty, or intended to commit the breach of duty – I can discern no difference between the two formulations; each would constitute, in my opinion, a deliberate commission of the breach – then, if the circumstances are such that the claimant is unlikely to discover for some time that the breach of duty has been committed, the facts involved in the breach are taken to have been deliberately concealed for subsection (1)(b) purposes.
Morritt LJ said, in [Brocklesby v Armitage and Guest (Note) [2002] 1 WLR 598], that in general a person is assumed to know the legal consequences of his actions and that, therefore, if an act has been done intentionally, the actor’s unawareness of its legal consequences would be immaterial and no defence. The premise is, in my opinion, much too wide to constitute a satisfactory approach to construction of a statutory provision such as section 32(2). A person may or may not know that an act of his or an omission to do or say something or other constitutes a breach of tortious or contractual duty. His knowledge or lack of it may well be immaterial to the question whether a cause of action for which he is liable has accrued to the person injured by the act or omission. But that is no reason at all why Parliament, in prescribing the circumstances in which the person injured by the act or omission can escape from a Limitation Act defence, should not distinguish between the case where the actor knows he is committing a breach of duty and the case where he does not. The clear words of section 32(2) – ‘deliberate commission of a breach of duty’ – show that Parliament has made that distinction.
It follows that, in my opinion, the construction of section 32(2) adopted in the Brocklesby case was wrong.’

Lord Slynn of Hadley, Lord Mackay of Clashfern, Lord Hobhouse of Woodborough, Lord Millett and Lord Scott of Foscote
Times 07-May-2002, [2002] UKHL 18, [2003] 1 AC 384, [2002] 2 WLR 1107, [2002] 19 EGCS 146, (2002) 81 Con LR 25, [2002] 2 All ER 641, [2002] PNLR 25, [2003] 1 CLC 101, [2002] 19 EGCS 146, 81 Con LR 25, [2003] 1 CLC 101
House of Lords, Bailii
Limitation Act 1980 32(2)
England and Wales
Citing:
Overruled – James Brocklesby v Armitage and Guest (a Firm) CA 9-Jul-1999
A failure by an adviser to make his position clear when he thought he had been negligent, could constitute a ‘deliberate’ act within section 32 even if the defendant’s actions were not motivated by any intention to deceive the claimant: ‘it is not . .
Cited – Beaman v ARTS Ltd CA 1949
The italian plaintiff had left Egland in 1935 leaving certain valuables with the defendants for safe keeping. During the war, the property was released to the authorities as alien property, who, informed by the defemdant that they were of no value, . .
Appeal from – Cave v Robinson Jarvis and Rolf CA 20-Feb-2001
The court was asked as to the meaning of the word ‘deliberate’ as it appeared in section 32(2) of the 1980 Act. . .

Cited by:
Cited – Williams v Fanshaw Porter and Hazelhurst CA 18-Feb-2004
The claimant alleged that her solicitors had concealed from her the fact that they had entered a consent order which dismissed her claim for medical negligence.
Held: The solicitor had failed to inform the client that her original claim . .
Cited – Chagos Islanders v Attorney-General and Another CA 22-Jul-2004
The claimants sought leave to appeal against a finding that they had no cause of action for their expulsion from their islands.
Held: ‘Exile without colour of law is forbidden by Magna Carta. That it can amount to a public law wrong is already . .
Cited – The Law Society v Sephton and Co and others CA 13-Dec-2004
The Society appealed dismissal for limitation of its claim against the defendant firm of accountants arising from alleged fraud in approval of a solicitor’s accounts.
Held: The liability did not arise until the Society decided to make . .
Cited – Polley v Warner Goodman and Streat (A Firm) CA 30-Jun-2003
A cause of action in negligence is complete once the claimant has suffered loss as a result of the negligence, even if the existence of the loss (and indeed of the negligence) is not, and could not be, known to him, and even where that loss is much . .
Cited – Denekamp v Denekamp CA 8-Dec-2005
Appeal against striking out of claim and civil restraint order. . .
Cited – Mortgage Express v Abensons Solicitors (A Firm) ChD 20-Apr-2012
The claimant lender sought damages against the defendant solicitors alleging negligence and breach of fiduciary duty by them in acting for them on mortgage advances. The defendants now argued that the allowance of an amendment to add the allegation . .
Cited – Burnden Holdings (UK) Ltd v Fielding and Another CA 17-Jun-2016
The company, now in liquidation sought to claim for the alledged misapplication by former directors of its funds in 2007. It now appealed against a summary rejection of its claim as time barred.
Held: The appeal succeeded. Section 21(1)(b) . .
Cited – Siddiqui v University of Oxford QBD 5-Dec-2016
The University applied to have struck out the claim by the claimant for damages alleging negligence in its teaching leading to a lower class degree than he said he should have been awarded.
Held: Strike out on the basis that the claim was . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Limitation, Professional Negligence

Leading Case

Updated: 01 November 2021; Ref: scu.170275

William Sindall Plc v Cambridgeshire County Council: CA 21 May 1993

Land was bought for development, but the purchaser later discovered a sewage pipe which very substantially limited its development potential. The existence of the pipe had not been disclosed on the sale, being unknown to the seller.
Held: Under the National Conditions of Sale, it is the purchaser who takes the risk of there being easements unknown to the seller. A seller was not liable for damages for misrepresentation if he had taken reasonable steps to make known to the purchaser what he himself knew. Clause 14 of the Conditions is not an exclusion clause, but rather qualifies the vendor’s obligations. It did not therefore fall to be tested for reasonableness. In replies to preliminary enquiries, the phrase ‘not so far as the vendor is aware’ represents that the solicitor and client have each made appropriate enquiries to support the statement, and: ‘knowledge may go beyond what is in somebody’s head, that it requires a solicitor to read his file and to read it properly and to make . . reasonable and prudent investigation of the grounds upon which the belief is based . .’

Lord Justice Russell Lord Justice Evans and Lord Justice Hoffmann
Ind Summary 28-Jun-1993, Times 08-Jun-1993, [1993] NPC 82 CA, [1994] 1 WLR 1016, [1994] 3 All ER 932, [1993] EWCA Civ 14
Bailii
Misrepresentation Act 1967 2, Law of Property Act 1925 76
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Wheeldon v Burrows CA 17-Jun-1879
Quasi-Easements granted on sale of part of Estate
S owned a workshop and an adjoining plot of land. The workshop had three windows looking out over the plot. The property was sold in separate lots at auction. The land was sold with no express reservation of any easements, and then similarly the . .
Cited – Heywood v Mallalieu 1883
A house was sold at auction by a mortgagee ‘subject to any easements.’ It turned out to be subject to an easement in favour of a neighbour entitling her to come and wash her clothes in the kitchen. The vendor’s solicitor had been told that the . .
Cited – Littledale v Liverpool College CA 1900
The mere storage of items in a property was insufficient to demonstrate the necessary intention to dispossess the rightful owner. It was a mere exercise of the rights under an easement. Enclosure of land is not necessarily decisive. Lord Lindley MR . .
Cited – Brown v Raphael 1958
This was a sale of an absolute reversion in a trust fund. The particulars stated that: ‘Estate duty will be payable on the death of the annuitant who is believed to have no aggregable estate’ and the name of the solicitors who prepared the . .
Cited – Cremdean Properties Ltd v Nash CA 1977
The defendant had relied on a non-reliance clause in the special conditions of a tender: ‘Messrs. Lalonde Bros and Parham for themselves, for the vendors or landlord whose agents they are give notice that (a) These particulars are prepared for the . .
Cited – Leeds Industrial Co-operative Society Ltd v Slack HL 1924
The plaintiff complained of a threatened interference with ancient lights.
Held: Damages may be awarded in lieu of an injunction even where the injunction sought is a quia timet injunction, but that power imports a further power to give an . .
Cited – Associated Japanese Bank (International) Ltd v Credit du Nord SA 1988
A contract of guarantee was made, but based upon a term of fundamental importance which was mistaken as to the existence of certain machines.
Held: The court must first look to the nature of the purported agreement. Steyn J said: ‘Logically, . .
Cited – Hill v Harris CA 1965
A lessor or vendor does not impliedly warrant that the premises are fit for any particular purpose. It is the contract which allocates the risk of the premises being unfit for such a purpose to the lessee. The lessee has duties to investigate the . .
Cited – Walters v Babergh District Council 1983
An action was brought for for negligence and/or breach of statutory duty under the 1936 Act. The plaintiff alleged that Melford Rural District Council (‘Melford’: the Defendant Council’s predecessor) had failed to inspect with reasonable care the . .
Cited – Grist v Bailey 1966
The parties believed that the property to be sold was occupied by a ‘protected tenant’. This was not so since the property could have been sold with vacant possession. It was argued that the contract could be set aside for common mistake.
Cited – Johnson v Agnew HL 1979
The seller had obtained a summary order for specific performance of a contract for the sale of land against the buyer.
Held: The breach was continuing and was still capable of being remedied by compliance with the order for specific . .
Cited – Laurence v Lexcourt Holdings Ltd ChD 1978
The purchasers sought rescission of a 15 year lease of business premises. Unknown to either party, the planning permission restricted their use as offices to a period of no more than two years.
Held: There had been a misrepresentation by the . .
Cited – Bell v Lever Brothers Ltd HL 15-Dec-1931
Bell was director and chairman of Niger, a subsidiary of Lever Brothers Ltd who dismissed him, offering and paying andpound;30,000 compensation. Lever then discovered that Mr Bell had made secret profits at the expense of Niger for which he could . .
Cited – Davis Contractors Ltd v Fareham Urban District Council HL 19-Apr-1956
Effect of Contract Frustration
The defendant appellants contended that their construction contract was frustrated because adequate supplies of labour were not available to it because of the war.
Held: The court considered how the frustration of the performance of a contract . .
Cited – Kemp Properties (UK) Ltd v Dentsply Research and Development Corporation 1991
The measure of damages is the same as for fraudulent misrepresentation i.e. all loss caused by the plaintiff having been induced to enter into the contract. . .
Cited – Jackson v Union Marine Insurance Co Ltd CCP 1874
The plaintiff ship owner, contracted under a charterparty to proceed with all possible dispatch to Newport. He insured the cargo. The ship ran aground before the cargo could be collected, and was delayed. The charterers threw up the charterparty and . .
Cited – Solle v Butcher CA 1949
Fundamental Mistake Needed to Allow Rescission
The court set out the circumstances in which the equitable remedy of rescission of a contract is available for mutual mistake. The mistake has to be as to some fundamental element of the contract. What is ‘fundamental’ is a wider category of event . .

Cited by:
Cited – MCI Worldcom International Inc v Primus Telecommunications Inc ComC 25-Sep-2003
The claimant sought judgment, and the defendant leave to amend its defence. The question was whether the proposed defence had any reasonable prospect of success.
Held: The misrepresentation alleged was made by the claimant’s in-house . .
Cited – Sykes and Another v Taylor-Rose and Another CA 27-Feb-2004
The appellants purchased a property from the respondents. The house had been the site of a partiularly horrendous murder in 1980, but the respondents did not disclose the fact.
Held: The doctrine of caveat emptor still had application. As . .
Cited – First National Commercial Bank Plc v Loxleys (a Firm) CA 6-Nov-1996
The plaintiff claimed damages from the seller of land and from their solicitors for misrepresentation in the replies to enquiries before contract. He appealed a striking out of his claim.
Held: A lawyer’s disclaimer placed on his Replies to . .
Cited – Graves v Graves and others CA 3-Jul-2007
The parties had divorced and settled financial provision, but the former wife and her children came to need a house and one of the claimant’s properties became vacant, and she was allowed to occupy it as a tenant, with the majority of the rent being . .
Cited – Morgan and Another v Pooley and Another QBD 7-Oct-2010
morgan_pooleyQBD10
The claimants had bought a property from the defendants and now sought damages in misrepresentation saying that the defendants had failed to disclose a planning application for an adjacent farm as regards a track bordering the property.
Held: . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Professional Negligence, Contract, Legal Professions

Leading Case

Updated: 31 October 2021; Ref: scu.90518

McFaddens (A Firm) v Platford: TCC 30 Jan 2009

The claimant firm of solicitors had been found negligent, and now sought a contribution to the damages awarded from the barrister defendant. They had not managed properly issues as to their clients competence to handle the proceedings.
Held: The standard of care required was that: ‘the barrister must conduct himself in his professional work with the competence (care and skill) of a barrister of ordinary skill who is competent to handle that type of and weight of work and a breach of that duty occurs when the error is one which no reasonably competent member of the profession possessing those skills should have made.’ Counsel’s decision to go ahead despite the issues as to the client’s competence was not negligent since necessarily he had to rely on the solicitors’ closer acquaintance with the client.

Toulmin QC J
[2009] EWHC 126 (TCC)
Bailii
Civil Liability (Contribution Claims) Act 1978 2
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Bolam v Friern Hospital Management Committee QBD 1957
Professional to use Skilled Persons Ordinary Care
Negligence was alleged against a doctor.
Held: McNair J directed the jury: ‘Where some special skill is exercised, the test for negligence is not the test of the man on the Clapham omnibus, because he has not got this special skill. The test . .
Cited – Williams v Thompson Leatherdale (A Firm) and Another QBD 10-Nov-2008
The claimant sought damages from her legal advisers. They had allowed her to settle an ancillary relief application knowing that the case of White v White had been referred to the House of lords, and the settlement proved to have been on . .
Cited – Moy v Pettman Smith (a firm) and another HL 3-Feb-2005
Damages were claimed against a barrister for advice on a settlement given at the door of the court. After substantial litigation, made considerably more difficult by the negligence of the solicitors, the barrister had not advised the claimant at the . .
Cited – Brutus v Cozens HL 19-Jul-1972
The House was asked whether the conduct of the defendant at a tennis match at Wimbledon amounted to using ‘insulting words or behaviour’ whereby a breach of the peace was likely to be occasioned contrary to section 5. He went onto court 2, blew a . .
Cited – W v L CA 1974
For civil patients, it matters a great deal whether the classification of their condition is ‘severe subnormality’ or just ‘subnormality’ or whether it is ‘mental illness’ or ‘psychopathic disorder’. Lawton LJ discussed the construction of the . .
Cited – Arthur JS Hall and Co (A Firm) v Simons; Barratt v Woolf Seddon (A Firm); Harris v Schofield Roberts and Hill (A Firm) HL 20-Jul-2000
Clients sued their solicitors for negligence. The solicitors responded by claiming that, when acting as advocates, they had the same immunities granted to barristers.
Held: The immunity from suit for negligence enjoyed by advocates acting in . .
Cited – Ridehalgh v Horsefield; Allen v Unigate Dairies Ltd CA 26-Jan-1994
Guidance for Wasted Costs Orders
Guidance was given on the circumstances required for the making of wasted costs orders against legal advisers. A judge invited to make an order arising out of an advocate’s conduct of court proceedings must make full allowance for the fact that an . .
Cited – Saif Ali v Sydney Mitchell and Co (a Firm) HL 1978
Extent of Counsel’s Immunity in Negligence
The House considered the extent of a barrister’s immunity from action in negligence, and particularly whether it covered pre-trial acts or omissions in connection with civil proceedings.
Held: A barrister’s immunity from suit extended only to . .
Cited – Locke v Camberwell Health Authority CA 23-May-1991
The court discussed the relative duties of solicitor and counsel. Taylor LJ set out the principles that: 1) In general a solicitor, is entitled to rely upon the advice of counsel properly instructed;
2) For a solicitor, without special . .
Cited – Sidaway v Board of Governors of the Bethlem Royal Hospital and the Maudsley Hospital HL 21-Feb-1985
The plaintiff alleged negligence in the failure by a surgeon to disclose or explain to her the risks inherent in the operation which he had advised.
Held: The appeal failed. A mentally competent patient has an absolute right to refuse to . .
Cited – Kirby v Leather CA 1965
The plaintiff crashed into a van whilst riding his moped and suffered serious brain damage. An inquiry as to a party’s competence to conduct a case had to focus on his capacity to conduct the proceedings. In this case the plaintiff ‘was not capable . .
Cited – In re MB (Medical Treatment) CA 26-Mar-1997
The patient was due to deliver a child. A delivery by cesarean section was necessary, but the mother had a great fear of needles, and despite consenting to the operation, refused the necessary consent to anesthesia in any workable form.
Held: . .
Cited – Practice Note (Family Division: Incapacitated adults) FD 2-Jan-2002
Proceedings which invoked the jurisdiction of the High Court to grant declarations as to the best interests of incapacitated adults were civil proceedings to which the Civil Procedure Rules applied. Although not assigned to any division, having . .
Cited – Masterman-Lister v Brutton and Co, Jewell and Home Counties Dairies (No 1) CA 19-Dec-2002
Capacity for Litigation
The claimant appealed against dismissal of his claims. He had earlier settled a claim for damages, but now sought to re-open it, and to claim in negligence against his former solicitors, saying that he had not had sufficient mental capacity at the . .
Cited – Pritchard Joyce and Hinds v Batcup and Another QBD 17-Jan-2008
The claimant solicitors sought contributions from counsel to the damages they had been obliged to pay to their client in negligence.
Held: Underhill J said: ‘My task is not to seek to decide definitively whether LL were liable in negligence to . .
Cited – Mount v Barker Austin (a Firm) CA 18-Feb-1998
The plaintiff sought damages for professional negligence from his former solicitors in respect of their conduct of a claim on his behalf. He succeeded, but was awarded no damages because the judge had found that his action would be bound to fail. He . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Professional Negligence, Damages

Updated: 31 October 2021; Ref: scu.280259

Adams v Bracknell Forest Borough Council: HL 17 Jun 2004

A attended the defendant’s schools between 1977 and 1988. He had always experienced difficulties with reading and writing and as an adult found those difficulties to be an impediment in his employment. He believed them to be the cause of the depression, panic and lack of self-esteem which he suffered. He consulted his doctor about those conditions, but was too embarrassed to disclose his literacy difficulties during the consultations. In 1999, when aged 27, he met by chance an educational psychologist, who suggested that he might be dyslexic. Upon a doctor confirming that diagnosis the appellant, in 2002, issued proceedings against the defendant. He claimed damages for negligence on the grounds of the defendant’s failure properly to assess the educational difficulties he had experienced at school. He said that such an assessment would have revealed that he suffered from dyslexia and led to treatment to ameliorate the consequences of that condition.
Held: The judge was right in applying the standard of reasonable behaviour to a person assumed to be suffering from untreated dyslexia, but there is no reason why the normal expectation that a person suffering from a significant injury will be curious about its origins should not also apply to dyslexics. A substantially objective test is to be applied when deciding what knowledge a claimant could reasonably be expected to acquire within section 14(3)(b). No sufficient reason had been shown to justify exercise of the court’s discretion to extend the limitation period under s33. Dyslexia, or at least the failure to treat it could constitute personal injury.

Lord Hoffmann, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, Lord Scott of Foscote, Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe, Baroness Hale of Richmond
[2004] UKHL 29, [2005] 1 AC 76, [2004] 3 WLR 89, [2004] 3 All ER 897
House of Lords, Bailii
Limitation Act 1980 14(3)(b) 33
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Adams v Bracknell Forest Borough Council CA 6-May-2003
The claimant sought damages from the defendant for having failed to diagnose his dysexia, resulting in educational failure. The respondent argued a reasonable peson would have sought help earlier. The council appealed a refusal to strike out of the . .
Cited – Robinson v St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council CA 25-Jul-2002
The claimant sought an extension of the limitation period to allow him to pursue an action. He sought damages for negligence against his former school which had failed to diagnose and treat his dyslexia.
Held: His appeal was denied. The claim . .
Cited – M and Another v Newham London Borough Council and Others; X (Minors) v Bedfordshire County Council CA 24-Feb-1994
A local authority was not liable in damages for breach of a statutory duty in Social Services. The policy which has first claim on the loyalty of the law is that wrongs should be remedied. The court would not go so far as to hold that the education . .
Cited – X (Minors) v Bedfordshire County Council; M (A Minor) and Another v Newham London Borough Council; Etc HL 29-Jun-1995
Liability in Damages on Statute Breach to be Clear
Damages were to be awarded against a Local Authority for breach of statutory duty in a care case only if the statute was clear that damages were capable of being awarded. in the ordinary case a breach of statutory duty does not, by itself, give rise . .
Cited – Phelps v Mayor and Burgesses London Borough of Hillingdon CA 4-Nov-1998
The plaintiff claimed damages for the negligent failure of an educational psychologist employed by a local authority to identify that the plaintiff was dyslexic.
Held: An educational psychologist has no duty of care to a child, as opposed to . .
Cited – Phelps v Hillingdon London Borough Council; Anderton v Clwyd County Council; Gower v Bromley London Borough Council; Jarvis v Hampshire County Council HL 28-Jul-2000
The plaintiffs each complained of negligent decisions in his or her education made by the defendant local authorities. In three of them the Court of Appeal had struck out the plaintiff’s claim and in only one had it been allowed to proceed.
Cited – Smith v Central Asbestos Co Ltd CA 1971
Edmund-Davies LJ said of a report prepared by a committee of which had been chairman into ‘whether any alteration is desirable in the law relating to the limitation of actions in cases of personal injury where the injury or disease giving rise to . .
No longer good law – Smith v Central Asbestos Co Ltd; Central Asbestos Co Ltd v Dodd HL 1973
The House considered at what point an injured person was to be deemed to have become aware of his injury so as to start the limitation period.
Held: A majority rejected the proposition that knowledge of ‘material facts’ for section 1(3) . .
Cited – Glasgow Corporation v Muir HL 16-Apr-1943
The House considered the proper test to define the standard of care that must be adopted by the reasonable man in a claim for negligence.
Held: Lord Clauson said that the test is whether the person owing the duty of care ‘had in contemplation . .
Persuasive – Forbes v Wandsworth Health Authority CA 21-Mar-1996
The plaintiff had a history of circulatory problems in his legs. He underwent surgery losing his leg. The question was when he should have sought advice as to why an attempted by-pass operation had resulted in one leg having to be amputated. He . .
Cited – O’Driscoll v Dudley Health Authority CA 30-Apr-1998
The plaintiff sought damages for the negligence of the respondent in her care at birth. Years later the family concluded that her condition was a result of negligence. They waited until she was 21, when they mistakenly believed that she became an . .
Cited – Nash v Eli Lilly and Co CA 1993
The court considered whether a solicitor acting for a potential plaintiff was considered to be an expert for the purposes of the section.
Held: Purchas LJ said: ‘Of course as advice from a solicitor as to the legal consequences of the act or . .
Cited – Ali v Courtaulds Textiles Ltd CA 26-May-1999
A claimant was not fixed with knowledge of the source of his injury by being referred for medical opinion. He could not be expected to understand the source of this injury without expert assistance, and time did not run until such assistance was . .
Cited – Fenech v East London and City Health Authority CA 2000
The court was asked how to set the time at which the claimant became fixed with knowledge of her injury. They ‘found it unnecessary to attempt any final reconciliation, because ‘on any sort of objective approach’ the claimant should have made . .
Cited – Smith v Leicestershire Health Authority CA 29-Jan-1998
The plaintiff appealed a finding that she had sufficient knowledge of her possible claim for medical negligence against the defendants, and that she was out of time. She had known of her condition, but said she had no sufficient reason to see that . .
Cited – Parry v Clwyd Health Authority QBD 1996
The court preferred the more objective approach as to looking at when a plaintiff was to be fixed with knowledge of his injury: ‘If the purpose of section 14(3) is to create deemed or constructive knowledge in circumstances where there is no actual . .
Cited – KR and others v Bryn Alyn Community (Holdings) Ltd and Another CA 12-Feb-2003
The respondent appealed decisions by the court to allow claims for personal injury out of time. The claims involved cases of sexual abuse inflicted by its employees going back over many years.
Held: The judge had misapplied the test laid down . .
Cited – Coban v Aynur Allen F Barnes and Son (a Firm) CA 8-Oct-1996
The defendant resisted the plaintiff’s claim for personal injuries as out of time. His explanation for not pursuing inquiries with his solicitor was that he was an over-stayer who feared deportation.
Held: Having good reason to make such . .
Cited – Glaister v Greenwood ChD 26-Feb-2001
. .
Cited – Webster v Cooper and Burnett CA 2000
. .
Cited – Mortgage Corporation v Lambert and Co (A Firm) and Another CA 24-Apr-2000
If it was alleged that a lender could should have been aware of an overvaluation of a property so as to start the limitation clock, the owner must satisfy the court that it was reasonable at the time alleged for the lender have become obliged to . .
Cited – Mellors v Perry CA 2003
The claimant had endured a childhood of renal problems with three kidney transplants but had no reason think that this was anything other than the consequence of her congenital disability. . .
Cited – Barrett v London Borough of Enfield HL 17-Jun-1999
The claimant had spent his childhood in foster care, and now claimed damages against a local authority for decisions made and not made during that period. The judge’s decision to strike out the claim had been upheld by the Court of Appeal.
Cited by:
Cited – Catholic Care (Diocese of Leeds) and Another v Young CA 14-Nov-2006
The claimant sought damages saying that he had been abused as a child whilst in the defendant’s care. The defendants appealed a finding that the claimant had not first known of his injury more than three years before begining his action.
Held: . .
Cited – McCoubrey v Ministry of Defence CA 24-Jan-2007
The defendant appealed a decision allowing a claim to proceed more than ten years after it had been suffered. The claimant’s hearing had been damaged after an officer threw a thunderflash into his trench on an exercise.
Held: The defendant’s . .
Cited – Collins v Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills and Others CA 23-May-2014
The claimant appealed against rejection of his claim for personal injury which had been rejected on basis that it was out of time. He had contracted cancer in 2002, but had recovered. He later came to attribute this to exposure to asbestos at work . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Education, Professional Negligence, Limitation

Leading Case

Updated: 31 October 2021; Ref: scu.198183

Hansom and others v E Rex Makin and Wright: CA 18 Dec 2003

The court considered a strike out application.
Held: Although there might be many cases where the possibility or otherwise of a fair trial is highly important to the exercise of discretion under CPR 3.9. it does not follow that where a fair trial is still possible, relief will necessarily be granted: ‘CPR 3.9 deals generally with the relief from sanctions imposed for failure to comply with a rule, practice direction or court order. It could not be the case that whenever such a sanction has been imposed and however flagrant or persistent the failure, the defaulting party could have it set aside by showing that a fair trial was still possible. The present appeal does not, however, involve flagrant or persistent misconduct, but, rather, all too familiar inefficiency and lack of diligence. And in such a case it is likely to be very material that a fair trial is still possible. But this cannot necessarily be decisive. All the circumstances must be considered. Prejudice to professional defendants is among them and it may exist even though it does not involve prejudice to the fairness of the trial process. In the present case, prejudice in the form of the detriment involved in having litigation hanging over professional defendants’ heads was a decisive factor identified by the master and judge.’

Lord Justice Keene Lord Justice Mance
[2003] EWCA Civ 1801
Bailii
Civil Procedure Rules 3.9
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Tisson v Telewest Communications Group Ltd EAT 19-Feb-2008
The claimant’s claim had been struck out for his failure to comply with an order to serve a list of documents.
Held: The appeal failed. The principles applied under the Civil Procedure Rules should be applied in Employment Tribunals. The . .
Cited – Sunley v HMP Durham EAT 12-Mar-2009
EAT PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – Striking-out/dismissal / Review
Review of strike-out decision. Employment Tribunal misunderstanding of agreed fact on material to exercise of discretion. EAT allowed appeal and . .
Cited – Welsh v Parnianzadeh (T/A Southern Fried Chicken) CA 10-Dec-2004
The respondent had claimed in damages after an alleged personal injury sustained at the premises of the claimant. After several procedural failures, the claim was struck out, but on appeal, it was ordered: ‘The appellant’s appeal is thus dismissed . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Professional Negligence, Civil Procedure Rules, Litigation Practice

Updated: 31 October 2021; Ref: scu.191203

Parkinson v St James and Seacroft University Hospital NHS Trust: CA 11 Apr 2001

A mother had undergone a negligent sterilisation, and in due course she gave birth to a disabled child.
Held: The right to bodily integrity is the first and most important of the interests protected by the law of tort. The cases saying that damages could not be claimed for the expense of bringing up a child should stand, but there was an exception which allowed the award of the additional, but not basic, costs and expenses of bringing up the child so far as they followed from the disability. Hale LJ stressed the importance of bodily integrity, describing the profound physical and psychological changes involved in pregnancy, as well as the continuing responsibilities, legal and practical, of a mother after giving birth, of which, short of adoption, she cannot rid herself.

Hale LJ, Brooke LJ, Sir Martin Nourse
Times 24-Apr-2001, Gazette 01-Jun-2001, [2001] Lloyd’s Rep Med 309, [2001] EWCA Civ 530, [2001] 3 WLR 376, [2002] QB 266, [2001] PNLR 43, [2002] 2 FCR 65, (2001) 61 BMLR 100, [2001] Fam Law 592, [2001] 2 FLR 401, [2001] 3 All ER 97, [2001] PIQR Q12
Bailii
England and Wales
Cited by:
Applied – Groom v Selby CA 18-Oct-2001
The defendant negligently failed to discover the claimant’s pregnancy. A severely disabled child was born. The question was as to the responsibility for payment of excess costs of raising a severely disabled child, a claim for economic loss. The . .
Cited – Rees v Darlington Memorial Hospital NHS Trust HL 16-Oct-2003
The claimant was disabled, and sought sterilisation because she feared the additional difficulties she would face as a mother. The sterilisation failed. She sought damages.
Held: The House having considered the issue in MacFarlane only . .
Cited – Niru Battery Manufacturing Company, Bank Sepah Iran v Milestone Trading Limited CA 23-Oct-2003
The claimant had contracted to purchase lead from some of the defendants. There were delays in payment but when funds were made available they should have been repaid. An incorrect bill of lading was presented. The bill certified that the goods had . .
Cited – Binod Sutradhar v Natural Environment Research Council CA 20-Feb-2004
The defendant council had carried out research into a water supply in India in the 1980s. The claimant drank the water, and claimed damages for having consumed arsenic in it.
Held: There is a close link between the tests in law for proximity . .
Cited – Farraj and Another v King’s Healthcare NHS Trust and Another QBD 26-May-2006
The claimants sought damages after the birth of their child with a severe hereditary disease which they said the defendant hospital had failed to diagnose after testing for that disease. The hospital sought a contribution from the company CSL who . .
Cited – Sutradhar v Natural Environment Research Council HL 5-Jul-2006
Preliminary Report of Risk – No Duty of Care
The claimant sought damages after suffering injury after the creation of water supplies which were polluted with arsenic. He said that a report had identified the risks. The defendant said that the report was preliminary only and could not found a . .
Cited – Ashley and Another v Sussex Police CA 27-Jul-2006
The deceased was shot by police officers raiding his flat in 1998. The claimants sought damages for his estate. They had succeeded in claiming damages for false imprisonment, but now appealed dismissal of their claim for damages for assault and . .
Cited – Meadows v Khan QBD 23-Nov-2017
Claim for the additional costs of raising the claimant’s son, A, who suffered from both haemophilia and autism. It is admitted that, but for the defendant’s negligence, A would not have been born because his mother would have discovered during her . .
Cited – A and B, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Health SC 14-Jun-2017
The court was asked: ‘Was it unlawful for the Secretary of State for Health, the respondent, who had power to make provisions for the functioning of the National Health Service in England, to have failed to make a provision which would have enabled . .
Cited – Human Rights Commission for Judicial Review (Northern Ireland : Abortion) SC 7-Jun-2018
The Commission challenged the compatibility of the NI law relating to banning nearly all abortions with Human Rights Law. It now challenged a decision that it did not have standing to bring the case.
Held: (Lady Hale, Lord Kerr and Lord Wilson . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Professional Negligence, Damages, Torts – Other

Leading Case

Updated: 31 October 2021; Ref: scu.147512

Rondel v Worsley: HL 1967

Need for Advocate’s Immunity from Negligence

The appellant had obtained the services of the respondent barrister to defend him on a dock brief, and alleged that the respondent had been negligent in the conduct of his defence.
Held: The House considered the immunity from suit of barristers acting in court. An advocate should remain immune from negligence in respect of his actions in court.
Lord Morris of Borth y Gest said that the immunity extended to the ‘conduct and management of a case in court’ by the advocate. The existence of liability in negligence, and indeed the very possibility of making assertions of liability against a barrister, might tend to undermine the willingness of barristers to carry out their duties to the court. An advocate should not be under pressure unwarrantably to subordinate his duty to the court to his duty to the client. The court re-inforced the undesirability of relitigating issues already decided. Also the ‘cab rank’ rule, imposed upon barristers, an obligation to accept instructions from anyone who wishes to engage their services in an area of the law in which they practised.
Lord Reid applied the immunity to the ‘conduct of litigation’ and being ‘engaged in litigation’. These phrases embodied the work covered in drawing pleadings or conducting subsequent stages in the case, and it would also apply to some cases where litigation was ‘impending’ but not to advisory work ‘where that consideration did not apply’.
Lord Reid continued: ‘Every counsel has a duty to his client fearlessly to raise every issue, advance every argument, and ask every question, however distasteful, which he thinks will help his client’s case. But, as an officer of the court concerned in the administration of justice, he has an overriding duty to the court, to the standards of his profession, and to the public, which may and often does lead to a conflict with his client’s wishes or with what the client thinks are his personal interests. Counsel must not mislead the court, he must not lend himself to casting aspersions on the other party or witnesses for which there is no sufficient basis in the information in his possession, he must not withhold authorities or documents which may tell against his clients but which the law or the standards of his profession require him to produce. And by so acting he may well incur the displeasure or worse of his client so that if the case is lost, his client would or might seek legal redress if that were open to him . . So the issue appears to me to be whether the abolition of the rule would probably be attended by such disadvantage to the public interest as to make its retention clearly justifiable. I would not expect any counsel to be influenced by the possibility of an action being raised against him to such an extent that he would knowingly depart from his duty to the court or to his profession. …

Lord Reid, Lord Morris of Borth-y-Gest, Lord Upjohn, Lord Pearson
[1969] 1 AC 191, [1967] UKHL 5, [1967] 3 All ER 993 HL(E), [1967] 3 WLR 1666
Bailii
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Atwell v Perr and Co and Another ChD 27-Jul-1998
Counsel advising during conduct of case has immunity but a wrongful advice on appeal was outside his immunity. Work done before a hearing constituting the formulation of case was within the immunity from suit. . .
Overruled – Arthur JS Hall and Co (A Firm) v Simons; Barratt v Woolf Seddon (A Firm); Harris v Schofield Roberts and Hill (A Firm) HL 20-Jul-2000
Clients sued their solicitors for negligence. The solicitors responded by claiming that, when acting as advocates, they had the same immunities granted to barristers.
Held: The immunity from suit for negligence enjoyed by advocates acting in . .
Considered – Saif Ali v Sydney Mitchell and Co (a Firm) HL 1978
Extent of Counsel’s Immunity in Negligence
The House considered the extent of a barrister’s immunity from action in negligence, and particularly whether it covered pre-trial acts or omissions in connection with civil proceedings.
Held: A barrister’s immunity from suit extended only to . .
Cited – Dutton v Bognor Regis Urban District Council CA 1972
The court considered the liability in negligence of a Council whose inspector had approved a building which later proved defective.
Held: The Council had control of the work and with such control came a responsibility to take care in . .
Cited – Hill v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire HL 28-Apr-1987
No General ty of Care Owed by Police
The mother of a victim of the Yorkshire Ripper claimed in negligence against the police alleging that they had failed to satisfy their duty to exercise all reasonable care and skill to apprehend the perpetrator of the murders and to protect members . .
Cited – National Westminster Bank plc v Spectrum Plus Limited and others HL 30-Jun-2005
Former HL decision in Siebe Gorman overruled
The company had become insolvent. The bank had a debenture and claimed that its charge over the book debts had become a fixed charge. The preferential creditors said that the charge was a floating charge and that they took priority.
Held: The . .
Cited – Kelley v Corston CA 20-Aug-1997
The plaintiff employed the defendant barrister to pursue her claim for ancillary relief in divorce. She sought to recover damages for his alleged negligence.
Held: A barrister’s immunity from suit for negligence in advocacy extends to . .
Cited – Van Colle v Hertfordshire Police QBD 10-Mar-2006
The claimants claimed for the estate of their murdered son. He had been waiting to give evidence in a criminal trial, and had asked the police for support having received threats. Other witnesses had also suffered intimidation including acts of . .
Cited – Van Colle v Hertfordshire Police QBD 10-Mar-2006
The claimants claimed for the estate of their murdered son. He had been waiting to give evidence in a criminal trial, and had asked the police for support having received threats. Other witnesses had also suffered intimidation including acts of . .
Cited – Ridehalgh v Horsefield; Allen v Unigate Dairies Ltd CA 26-Jan-1994
Guidance for Wasted Costs Orders
Guidance was given on the circumstances required for the making of wasted costs orders against legal advisers. A judge invited to make an order arising out of an advocate’s conduct of court proceedings must make full allowance for the fact that an . .
Cited – Jones v Kaney SC 30-Mar-2011
An expert witness admitted signing a joint report but without agreeing to it. The claimant who had lost his case now pursued her in negligence. The claimant appealed against a finding that the expert witness was immune from action.
Held: The . .
Cited – Lumsdon and Others, Regina (on The Application of) v Legal Services Board Admn 20-Jan-2014
Four barristers challenged, by a judicial review, a decision by which the LSB approved an application proposed by the BSB jointly with two other approved regulators, the SRA and IPS, to introduce the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates . .
Cited – Michael and Others v The Chief Constable of South Wales Police and Another SC 28-Jan-2015
The claimants asserted negligence in the defendant in failing to provide an adequate response to an emergency call, leading, they said to the death of their daughter at the hands of her violent partner. They claimed also under the 1998 Act. The . .
Cited – Singh v Moorlands Primary School and Another CA 25-Jul-2013
The claimant was a non-white head teacher, alleging that her school governors and local authority had undermined and had ‘deliberately endorsed a targeted campaign of discrimination, bullying, harassment and victimisation’ against her as an Asian . .
Applied – Rees v Sinclair 1974
(New Zealand Court of Appeal) The court discussed the indemnity given to witnesses: ‘But I cannot narrow the protection to what is done in court: it must be wider than that and include some pre-trial work. Each piece of before-trial work should, . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Professional Negligence, Legal Professions

Leading Case

Updated: 31 October 2021; Ref: scu.181060

Wilsher v Essex Area Health Authority: CA 1986

A prematurely-born baby was the subject of certain medical procedures, in the course of which a breach of duty occurred. to ensure that the correct amount was administered it was necessary to insert a catheter into an umbilical artery so that his arterial blood oxygen levels would be accurately read on an electronic monitor. A junior doctor mistakenly inserted the catheter into the umbilical vein with the result that the monitor would give a lower reading. Neither he nor the senior registrar appreciated that the X-rays taken showed the catheter in the vein but both realised that there was something wrong with the readings on the monitor. The senior registrar inserted another catheter but into the same vein and other means of monitoring the arterial blood oxygen were also adopted. The following day the second catheter was replaced by one in the artery. Thereafter the monitoring of the arterial blood oxygen levels continued and at times during the following weeks there were periods when the levels were considered too high. The plaintiff developed retrolental fibroplasia, a condition of the eyes, which resulted in blindness. The breach of duty increased the risk of his suffering it. But there were a number of other factors which might have caused the injury.
Held: ‘If it is an established fact that conduct of a particular kind creates a risk that injury will be caused to another or increases an existing risk that injury will ensue; and if the two parties stand in such a relationship that the one party owes a duty not to conduct himself in that way; and if the first party does conduct himself in that way; and if the other party does suffer injury of the kind to which the risk related; then the first party is taken to have caused the injury by his breach of duty, even though the existence and extent of the contribution made by the breach cannot be ascertained.’
Sir Nicolas Browne-Wilkinson V-C dissenting said: ‘To apply the principle in McGhee v National Coal Board [1973] 1 WLR 1 to the present case would constitute an extension of that principle. In the McGhee case there was no doubt that the pursuer’s dermatitis was physically caused by brick dust: the only question was whether the continued presence of such brick dust on the pursuer’s skin after the time when he should have been provided with a shower caused or materially contributed to the dermatitis which he contracted. There was only one possible agent which could have caused the dermatitis, viz, brick dust, and there was no doubt that the dermatitis from which he suffered was caused by that brick dust. In the present case the question is different. There are a number of different agents which could have caused the RLF. Excess oxygen was one of them. The defendants failed to take reasonable precautions to prevent one of the possible causative agents (eg excess oxygen) from causing RLF. But no one can tell in this case whether excess oxygen did or did not cause or contribute to the RLF suffered by the plaintiff. The plaintiff’s RLF may have been caused by some completely different agent or agents, eg hypercarbia, intraventricular haemorrhage, apnoea or patent ductus arteriosus. In addition to oxygen, each of those conditions has been implicated as a possible cause of RLF. This baby suffered from each of those conditions at various times in the first two months of his life. There is no satisfactory evidence that excess oxygen is more likely than any of those other four candidates to have caused RLF in this baby. To my mind, the occurrence of RLF following a failure to take a necessary precaution to prevent excess oxygen causing RLF provides no evidence and raises no presumption that it was excess oxygen rather than one or more of the four other possible agents which caused or contributed to RLF in this case. The position, to my mind, is wholly different from that in the McGhee case [1973] 1 WLR 1, where there was only one candidate (brick dust) which could have caused the dermatitis, and the failure to take a precaution against brick dust causing dermatitis was followed by dermatitis caused by brick dust. In such a case, I can see the common sense, if not the logic, of holding that, in the absence of any other evidence, the failure to take the precaution caused or contributed to the dermatitis. To the extent that certain members of the House of Lords decided the question on inferences from evidence or presumptions, I do not consider that the present case falls within their reasoning. A failure to take preventative measures against one out of five possible causes is no evidence as to which of those five caused the injury.’

Mustill LJ, Sir Nicolas Browne-Wilkinson V-C
[1986] 3 All ER 801, [1987] 2 WLR 425, [1987] QB 730
lip
England and Wales
Citing:
Applied – Bolam v Friern Hospital Management Committee QBD 1957
Professional to use Skilled Persons Ordinary Care
Negligence was alleged against a doctor.
Held: McNair J directed the jury: ‘Where some special skill is exercised, the test for negligence is not the test of the man on the Clapham omnibus, because he has not got this special skill. The test . .
Cited – A/S Rendal v Arcos Ltd HL 1937
. .
Cited – Bonnington Castings Ltd v Wardlaw HL 1-Mar-1956
The injury of which the employee complained came from two sources, a pneumatic hammer, in respect of which the employers were not in breach of the relevant Regulations; and swing grinders, in respect of which they were in breach.
Held: It had . .
Cited – McDermid v Nash Dredging and Reclamation Co Ltd HL 2-Jul-1986
The Court explained the duty of an employer towards his employees as regards their safety: ‘an employer owes to his employee a duty to exercise reasonable care to ensure that the system of work provided for him is a safe one. Secondly, a provision . .
Reviewed – McGhee v National Coal Board HL 1973
The claimant who was used to emptying pipe kilns at a brickworks was sent to empty brick kilns where the working conditions were much hotter and dustier. His employers failed, in breach of their duty, to provide him with washing facilities after his . .
Appealed to – Wilsher v Essex Area Health Authority HL 24-Jul-1986
A premature baby suffered injury after mistaken treatment by a hospital doctor. He had inserted a monitor into the umbilical vein. The claimant suggested the treatment should have been by a more senior doctor. The hospital appealed a finding that it . .
Cited – McGhee v National Coal Board HL 1973
The claimant who was used to emptying pipe kilns at a brickworks was sent to empty brick kilns where the working conditions were much hotter and dustier. His employers failed, in breach of their duty, to provide him with washing facilities after his . .

Cited by:
Appeal from – Wilsher v Essex Area Health Authority HL 24-Jul-1986
A premature baby suffered injury after mistaken treatment by a hospital doctor. He had inserted a monitor into the umbilical vein. The claimant suggested the treatment should have been by a more senior doctor. The hospital appealed a finding that it . .
Cited – McTear v Imperial Tobacco Ltd OHCS 31-May-2005
The pursuer sought damages after her husband’s death from lung cancer. She said that the defenders were negligent in having continued to sell him cigarettes knowing that they would cause this.
Held: The action failed. The plaintiff had not . .
Appeal from – Wilsher v Essex Area Health Authority HL 24-Jul-1986
A premature baby suffered injury after mistaken treatment by a hospital doctor. He had inserted a monitor into the umbilical vein. The claimant suggested the treatment should have been by a more senior doctor. The hospital appealed a finding that it . .
Cited – Farraj and Another v King’s Healthcare NHS Trust (KCH) and Another CA 13-Nov-2009
The claimant parents each carried a gene making any child they bore liable to suffer a serious condition. On a pregnancy the mother’s blood was sent for testing to the defendants who sent it on to the second defendants. The condition was missed, . .
Cited – Sienkiewicz v Greif (UK) Ltd; Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council v Willmore SC 9-Mar-2011
The Court considered appeals where defendants challenged the factual basis of findings that they had contributed to the causes of the claimant’s Mesothelioma, and in particular to what extent a court can satisfactorily base conclusions of fact on . .
Cited – Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust SC 10-Oct-2018
The claimant had been assaulted. He presented at the defendant hospital with head injuries. Despite his complaints he said he was not treated properly, being told to wait five hours at reception, and went home. Later an ambulance was delayed and he . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Professional Negligence

Leading Case

Updated: 31 October 2021; Ref: scu.190115

Wilsher v Essex Area Health Authority: HL 24 Jul 1986

A premature baby suffered injury after mistaken treatment by a hospital doctor. He had inserted a monitor into the umbilical vein. The claimant suggested the treatment should have been by a more senior doctor. The hospital appealed a finding that it had failed to prove that it had not caused the injury.
Held: The appeal succeeded. It was for the plaintiff to prove his case, and the court must allow that the Health Service will employ inexperienced doctors. The standard of care to be expected must be looked at relative to the experience of the doctor employed. However, the senior registrar was negligent in failing to recognise the error, and the damage was shown to be of the sort which might be expected to follow.
It was one thing to treat an increase of risk as equivalent to the making of a material contribution where one agent was involved, but quite another where any one of a number of events may equally probably have caused the damage.

Sir Nicolas Browne-Wilkinson V.-C., Mustill and Glidewell L.JJ.
[1988] AC 1074, [1988] 1 All ER 871, [1987] UKHL 11
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Wilsher v Essex Area Health Authority CA 1986
A prematurely-born baby was the subject of certain medical procedures, in the course of which a breach of duty occurred. to ensure that the correct amount was administered it was necessary to insert a catheter into an umbilical artery so that his . .
Cited – Bonnington Castings Ltd v Wardlaw HL 1-Mar-1956
The injury of which the employee complained came from two sources, a pneumatic hammer, in respect of which the employers were not in breach of the relevant Regulations; and swing grinders, in respect of which they were in breach.
Held: It had . .
Cited – McGhee v National Coal Board HL 1973
The claimant who was used to emptying pipe kilns at a brickworks was sent to empty brick kilns where the working conditions were much hotter and dustier. His employers failed, in breach of their duty, to provide him with washing facilities after his . .
Cited – Thompson v Smiths Shiprepairers (North Shields) Ltd QBD 1984
The test to be applied in determining the time at which an employer’s failure to provide protection constituted actionable negligence was what would have been done at any particular time by a reasonable and prudent employer who was properly but not . .
Cited – Clark v MacLennan 1983
The court considered the judment in McGhee: ‘It seems to me that it follows from McGhee that where there is a situation in which a general duty of care arises and there is a failure to take a precaution, and that very damage occurs against which the . .
Cited – Vyner v Waldenberg Brothers Ltd CA 1946
Vyner was working a circular saw when part of his thumb was cut off. The saw failed in several respects to comply with the Woodworking Machinery Regulations, and in particular the guard was not properly adjusted. The accident happened before the . .
Cited – Wakelin v London and South Western Railway Co HL 1886
The liability of a defendant in negligence must rest in the first place on there being, per Lord Watson) ‘some negligent act or omission on the part of the company or their servants which materially contributed to the injury or death complained of . . .
Cited – Caswell v Powell Duffryn Associated Collieries HL 1939
An action was brought for injuries caused by a breach of statutory of duty.
Held: A breach of statutory duty is regarded as ‘akin to negligence’.
Lord Atkin said that a common sense rather than a philosophical or scientific approach to . .
Appeal from – Wilsher v Essex Area Health Authority CA 1986
A prematurely-born baby was the subject of certain medical procedures, in the course of which a breach of duty occurred. to ensure that the correct amount was administered it was necessary to insert a catheter into an umbilical artery so that his . .

Cited by:
Approved – Fairchild v Glenhaven Funeral Services Ltd and Others HL 20-Jun-2002
The claimants suffered mesothelioma after contact with asbestos while at work. Their employers pointed to several employments which might have given rise to the condition, saying it could not be clear which particular employment gave rise to the . .
Cited – Bolitho v City and Hackney Health Authority HL 24-Jul-1997
The plaintiff suffered catastrophic brain damage as a result of cardiac arrest induced by respiratory failure as a child whilst at the defendant hospital. A doctor was summoned but failed to attend, and the child suffered cardiac arrest and brain . .
Appealed to – Wilsher v Essex Area Health Authority CA 1986
A prematurely-born baby was the subject of certain medical procedures, in the course of which a breach of duty occurred. to ensure that the correct amount was administered it was necessary to insert a catheter into an umbilical artery so that his . .
Cited – Gregg v Scott HL 27-Jan-2005
The patient saw his doctor and complained about a lump under his arm. The doctor failed to diagnose cancer. It was nine months before treatment was begun. The claimant sought damages for the reduction in his prospects of disease-free survival for . .
Cited – McTear v Imperial Tobacco Ltd OHCS 31-May-2005
The pursuer sought damages after her husband’s death from lung cancer. She said that the defenders were negligent in having continued to sell him cigarettes knowing that they would cause this.
Held: The action failed. The plaintiff had not . .
Cited – Barker v Corus (UK) Plc HL 3-May-2006
The claimants sought damages after contracting meselothemia working for the defendants. The defendants argued that the claimants had possibly contracted the disease at any one or more different places. The Fairchild case set up an exception to the . .
Cited – Nestle v National Westminster Bank CA 6-May-1992
The claimant said that the defendant bank as trustee of her late father’s estate had been negligent in its investment of trust assets.
Held: The claimant had failed to establish either a breach of trust or any loss flowing from it, though . .
Cited – St George v The Home Office CA 8-Oct-2008
The claimant was taken into prison. He was known to be subject to epilepsy, with high risks on withdrawal from drugs, but was allocated a high bunk. He had a seizure and fell, suffering head injuries. He sought damages in negligence. The defendant . .
Cited – Environment Agency v Ellis CA 17-Oct-2008
The claimant was injured working for the appellants. The appellants now appealed the finding that they were responsible saying that other factors contributed to the injury, and in particular that he had fallen at home. The claimant said that that . .
Cited – Sanderson v Hull CA 5-Nov-2008
Insufficient proof of cause of infection
The claimant worked as a turkey plucker. She caught an infection (campylobacter enteritis) at work, and the employer now appealed against a finding of liability. The employer said that the only necessary protection was regular washing of hands. The . .
Cited – Sienkiewicz v Greif (UK) Ltd; Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council v Willmore SC 9-Mar-2011
The Court considered appeals where defendants challenged the factual basis of findings that they had contributed to the causes of the claimant’s Mesothelioma, and in particular to what extent a court can satisfactorily base conclusions of fact on . .
Cited – Alcock and Others v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police QBD 31-Jul-1990
Overcrowding at a football match lead to the deaths of 95 people. The defendant’s employees had charge of safety at the match, and admitted negligence vis-a-vis those who had died and been injured. The plaintiffs sought damages, some of them for . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Professional Negligence, Health Professions

Leading Case

Updated: 31 October 2021; Ref: scu.177399

Arthur JS Hall and Co (A Firm) v Simons; Barratt v Woolf Seddon (A Firm); Harris v Schofield Roberts and Hill (A Firm): HL 20 Jul 2000

Clients sued their solicitors for negligence. The solicitors responded by claiming that, when acting as advocates, they had the same immunities granted to barristers.
Held: The immunity from suit for negligence enjoyed by advocates acting in both criminal and civil proceedings is no longer appropriate or in the public interest and is removed: ‘The standard of care to be applied in negligence actions against an advocate is the same as that applicable to any other skilled professional who has to work in an environment where decisions and exercises of judgment have to be made in often difficult and time constrained circumstances. It requires a plaintiff to show that the error was one which no reasonably competent member of the relevant profession would have made.’ Recent changes in procedure designed to reduce vexatious litigation, and the doctrine against collateral attack should be dealt with by more specific remedies. Experience in foreign common law jurisdictions did not indicate a need for the immunity. The courts can be trusted to differentiate between errors of judgment and true negligence. The section did not create a statutory bar on claims in negligence.
Lord Hope discussed an advocate’s duty to the court: ‘it is necessary to appreciate the extent of that duty and the extent to which the efficiency of our systems of criminal justice depends on it. The advocate’s duty to the court is not just that he must not mislead the court, that he must ensure that the facts are presented fairly and that he must draw the attention of the court to the relevant authorities even if they are against him. It extends to the whole way in which the client’s case is presented, so that time is not wasted and the court is able to focus on the issues as efficiently and economically as possible.’
Lord Hoffmann set out two policies which underlie discouragement of relitigation: ‘The law discourages relitigation of the same issues except by means of an appeal. The Latin maxims often quoted are nemo debet bis vexari pro una et eadem causa and interest rei publicae ut finis sit litium. They are usually mentioned in tandem but it is important to notice that the policies they state are not quite the same. The first is concerned with the interests of the defendant: a person should not be troubled twice for the same reason. This policy has generated the rules which prevent relitigation when the parties are the same: autrefois acquit, res judicata and issue estoppel. The second policy is wider: it is concerned with the interests of the state. There is a general public interest in the same issue not being litigated over again. The second policy can be used to justify the extension of the rules of issue estoppel to cases in which the parties are not the same but the circumstances are such as to bring the case within the spirit of the rules.’

Lord Browne-Wilkinson, Lord Steyn, Lord Hoffmann Lord Hope of Craighead Lord Hutton, Lord Hobhouse of Woodborough, Lord Millett
Gazette 17-Aug-2000, Times 21-Jul-2000, [2000] UKHL 38, [2000] 3 All ER 673, [2000] 3 WLR 543, [2000] 2 FLR 545, [2000] Fam Law 806, [2002] 1 AC 615
House of Lords, Bailii
Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 62
England and Wales
Citing:
Overruled – Rondel v Worsley HL 1967
Need for Advocate’s Immunity from Negligence
The appellant had obtained the services of the respondent barrister to defend him on a dock brief, and alleged that the respondent had been negligent in the conduct of his defence.
Held: The House considered the immunity from suit of . .
Appeal from – Arthur J S Hall and Co (A Firm) v Simons etc CA 14-Dec-1998
The court considered the limits on liability for professional negligence for lawyers in conduct associated with litigation, but outside the courtroom.
Held: Though the court must balance the need for protection against negligence by lawyers . .
Cited – Hedley Byrne and Co Ltd v Heller and Partners Ltd HL 28-May-1963
Banker’s Liability for Negligent Reference
The appellants were advertising agents. They were liable themselves for advertising space taken for a client, and had sought a financial reference from the defendant bankers to the client. The reference was negligent, but the bankers denied any . .
Cited – Elguzouli-Daf v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis and Another CA 16-Nov-1994
The Court upheld decisions striking out actions for negligence brought by claimants who had been arrested and held in custody during criminal investigations which were later discontinued. The Crown Prosecution Service owes no general duty of care to . .
Cited – Smith v Linskills CA 1996
The claimant, a convicted burglar took proceedings against his former solicitors. He alleged that the negligence of the solicitor caused his wrongful conviction.
Held: The case was dismissed. The claimant was seeking to re-litigate issues . .
Cited – Hunter v Chief Constable of the West Midlands Police HL 19-Nov-1981
No collateral attack on Jury findigs.
An attempt was made to open up in a civil action, allegations of assaults by the police prior to the making of confessions which had been disposed of in a voir dire in the course of a criminal trial. The plaintiffs had imprisoned having spent many . .

Cited by:
Cited – Commissioners of Customs and Excise v Barclays Bank Plc ComC 3-Feb-2004
The claimant had obtained orders against two companies who banked with the respondent. Asset freezing orders were served on the bank, but within a short time the customer used the bank’s Faxpay national service to transfer substantial sums outside . .
Cited – Heath v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis CA 20-Jul-2004
The female civilian officer alleged sex discrimination against her by a police officer. Her complaint was heard at an internal disciplinary. She alleged sexual harrassment, and was further humiliated by the all male board’s treatment of her . .
Cited – Moy v Pettman Smith (a firm) and another HL 3-Feb-2005
Damages were claimed against a barrister for advice on a settlement given at the door of the court. After substantial litigation, made considerably more difficult by the negligence of the solicitors, the barrister had not advised the claimant at the . .
Cited – National Westminster Bank plc v Spectrum Plus Limited and others HL 30-Jun-2005
Former HL decision in Siebe Gorman overruled
The company had become insolvent. The bank had a debenture and claimed that its charge over the book debts had become a fixed charge. The preferential creditors said that the charge was a floating charge and that they took priority.
Held: The . .
Cited – Laing v Taylor Walton (A Firm) QBD 20-Feb-2007
The claimant sought to pursue an action for professional negligence against his solicitors. They said that the action was an abuse being an attempted relitigation of matters already settled when a judge had decided that the defendants had not owed a . .
Cited – Awoyomi v Radford and Another QBD 12-Jul-2007
The claimant sought damages from the defendant barristers who had represented her in criminal proceedings. They had not passed on to her the statement made by the judge in chambers that if she pleaded guilty he would not impose a sentence of . .
Cited – McFaddens (A Firm) v Platford TCC 30-Jan-2009
The claimant firm of solicitors had been found negligent, and now sought a contribution to the damages awarded from the barrister defendant. They had not managed properly issues as to their clients competence to handle the proceedings.
Held: . .
Cited – Halsey v Milton Keynes General NHS Trust etc CA 11-May-2004
The court considered the effect on costs orders of a refusal to take part in alternate dispute resolution procedures. The defendant Trust had refused to take the dispute to a mediation. In neither case had the court ordered or recommended ADR.
Cited – Council of The City of Newcastle Upon Tyne v Marsden (Rev 1) EAT 23-Jan-2010
EAT PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – Review
Claim under Disability Discrimination Act 1995 dismissed at PHR because Claimant not available to give evidence as to long-term effect of injury – Judge willing to offer . .
Cited – Jones v Kaney SC 30-Mar-2011
An expert witness admitted signing a joint report but without agreeing to it. The claimant who had lost his case now pursued her in negligence. The claimant appealed against a finding that the expert witness was immune from action.
Held: The . .
Cited – Lumsdon and Others, Regina (on The Application of) v Legal Services Board Admn 20-Jan-2014
Four barristers challenged, by a judicial review, a decision by which the LSB approved an application proposed by the BSB jointly with two other approved regulators, the SRA and IPS, to introduce the Quality Assurance Scheme for Advocates . .
Cited – Singh v Moorlands Primary School and Another CA 25-Jul-2013
The claimant was a non-white head teacher, alleging that her school governors and local authority had undermined and had ‘deliberately endorsed a targeted campaign of discrimination, bullying, harassment and victimisation’ against her as an Asian . .
Cited – Michael Wilson and Partners Ltd v Sinclair and Another CA 13-Jan-2017
The appellant company sought to recover assets which, it said, had been acquired by a former partner in breach of his obligations under the partnership agreement, but which had been taken in the names of some of the respondents. There had been an . .
Cited – Michael Wilson and Partners Ltd v Sinclair and Others ComC 21-Sep-2012
The claimant company alleged that the defendants had variously received assests (shares and cash) acquired by a former partner in the claimant company and held on his behalf, in breach of his obligations to the caimant partnership. The defendants . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Professional Negligence, Legal Professions

Leading Case

Updated: 31 October 2021; Ref: scu.77880

Santander UK Plc v RA Legal Solicitors (A Firm): QBD 23 May 2013

The claimant bank said that it had been the subject of a mortgage fraud, and that the defendant solicitors had acted for the borrower. The claim was for breach of trust, in not having exercised reasonable skill and care on their behalf.

Andrew Smith J
[2013] EWHC 1380 (QB)
Bailii
Trustee Act 1925 61
England and Wales
Cited by:
Appeal from – Santander UK Plc v RA Legal Solicitors CA 24-Feb-2014
. .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Professional Negligence

Updated: 31 October 2021; Ref: scu.510162

Phelps v Hillingdon London Borough Council: QBD 10 Oct 1997

An educational psychologist has a professional duty of care to a child when asked to assess for that child for dyslexia, even though the report may be for the local authority.
Garland J
Times 10-Oct-1997, [1997] 3 FCR 621, [1998] ELR 38
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – X (Minors) v Bedfordshire County Council; M (A Minor) and Another v Newham London Borough Council; Etc HL 29-Jun-1995
Liability in Damages on Statute Breach to be Clear
Damages were to be awarded against a Local Authority for breach of statutory duty in a care case only if the statute was clear that damages were capable of being awarded. in the ordinary case a breach of statutory duty does not, by itself, give rise . .

Cited by:
Appeal from – Phelps v Mayor and Burgesses London Borough of Hillingdon CA 4-Nov-1998
The plaintiff claimed damages for the negligent failure of an educational psychologist employed by a local authority to identify that the plaintiff was dyslexic.
Held: An educational psychologist has no duty of care to a child, as opposed to . .
Cited – David Lannigan v Glasgow City Council OHCS 12-Aug-2004
The pursuer said the teachers employed by the defendant had failed to identify that was dyslexic, leading him to suffer damage. The defenders said the claim was time barred, which the pursuer admitted, but then said that the claim ought to go ahead . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 23 October 2021; Ref: scu.84697

In re Windsor Steam Coal Co. (1901) Ltd: 1929

The courts look more favourably on applications by gratuitous trustees than on those by paid trustees. In a company winding up the liquidator may be liable to the company for negligence on his part in making a compromise.
[1929] 1 Ch 151
Cited by:
Cited – Johnson v Gore Wood and Co HL 14-Dec-2000
Shareholder May Sue for Additional Personal Losses
A company brought a claim of negligence against its solicitors, and, after that claim was settled, the company’s owner brought a separate claim in respect of the same subject-matter.
Held: It need not be an abuse of the court for a shareholder . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 16 October 2021; Ref: scu.252499

Crouch v King’s Healthcare NHS Trust: CA 15 Oct 2004

The defendants sought approval of their practice of making a written offer to the claimants rather than making a payment into court. The offer had been accepted but only after the defendant had purported to withdraw it.
Held: ‘it certainly is not open to any defendant to decree unilaterally that where a money claim is being made against it, it will not make a payment into court but will make a written offer on the basis that Part 36 will apply as though he had made a payment into court. ‘ in making the decision, the judge had been exercising a discretion, and that exercise should not be disturbed.
Lord Justice Waller Lord Justice Mance And Sir Christopher Staughton
[2004] EWCA Civ 1332
Bailii
Civil Procedure Rules 836 44
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Amber v Stacey CA 15-Nov-2000
The defendant challenged an order that he should pay the plaintiff’s costs, having made an offer in correspondence which was not accepted.
Held: The claimant had exaggerated his claim, but the defendant’s offer had been inadequate. The judge’s . .
Cited – Southampton Container Terminals Ltd v Hansa Schiffahrts GmbH (The Maersk Colombo) CA 3-May-2001
The claimants operated the container terminal in Southampton. A crane was struck and damaged beyond repair by the defendants’ vessel. The crane was not replaced because before the casualty the claimants had ordered two new cranes. Loss of use of the . .
Cited – Calderbank v Calderbank CA 5-Jun-1975
Letter Without Prejudice Save as to Costs
Husband and wife disputed provision under 1973 Act, and a summons under section 17 of the 1882 Act. The wife had offered to transfer a house to H occupied by his mother, worth about pounds 12,000, in return for him leaving the matrimonial home. He . .
Cited – Cutts v Head and Another CA 7-Dec-1983
There had been a trial of 35 days regarding rights of way over land, which had proved fruitless, and where some orders had been made without jurisdiction. The result had been inconclusive. The costs order was now appealed, the plaintiff complaining . .
Cited – Cumper v Pothecary 1941
The court considered the nature of a payment into court: ‘there is nothing contractual about payment into court. It is wholly a procedural matter and has no true analogy to a settlement arranged between the parties out of court, which, of course, . .
Cited – Flynn v Scougall CA 13-Jul-2004
The defendant had made a payment into court. She then applied to reduce the amount paid in, but the claimant accepted the original sum before that application was heard. The defendant appealed saying that their application operated as a stay.
Cited – MRW Technologies v Cecil Holdings 22-Jun-2001
The court heard an appeal against a Master’s order which had given the defendant permission under rule 36.6(5) to withdraw a Part 36 payment.
Held: The same considerations apply to giving permission to withdraw money in court as to refusing . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 16 October 2021; Ref: scu.216445

Vision Golf Ltd v Weightmans (A Firm): ChD 26 Jul 2005

A lease had been forfeited. The defendant firm of solicitors had negligently failed to apply for relief. They argued that that failure had in fact caused no loss to the claimants, since they would have lost the lease anyway.
Held: The ‘but for’ test set out in the Kuwait Airlines case was passed. ‘But for’ the negligence relief would have been obtained. The law has abandoned the theory that a claimant’s impecuniosity absolves a tortfeasor from liability. As to damages, the value of the lease would include a sum in respect of loss of profits.
Lewison J
[2005] EWHC 1675 (Ch)
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Kuwait Airways Corporation v Iraqi Airways Company and Others (Nos 4 and 5) HL 16-May-2002
After the invasion of Kuwait, the Iraqi government had dissolved Kuwait airlines, and appropriated several airplanes. Four planes were destroyed by Allied bombing, and 6 more were appropriated again by Iran.
Held: The appeal failed. No claim . .
Cited – Hopkins v Mackenzie CA 27-Oct-1994
A loss arising from a solicitor’s failure to pursue a case arose only when the claim was struck out, not earlier when compromised, and even though value already diminished. Accordingly the limitation period began to run from that time. . .
Cited – Khan v R M Falvey and Co (a Firm) CA 22-Mar-2002
The claimant sought damages from his former solicitors for failing to act to avoid his case being struck out. The second action was itself delayed, and the defendants asserted that the cause of action occurred not when his claim was actually struck . .
Cited – Billson and Others v Residential Tenancies Ltd CA 11-Feb-1991
As to the exercise of relief in equity outside the limitation period: ‘This is not to say that courts of equity should now grant relief without any regard to the statutory provisions. Equity follows the law, but not slavishly nor always: see Cardozo . .
Cited – Lagden v O’Connor HL 4-Dec-2003
The parties had been involved in a road traffic accident. The defendant drove into the claimant’s parked car. The claimant was unable to afford to hire a car pending repairs being completed, and arranged to hire a car on credit. He now sought . .
Cited – Billson and Others v Residential Tenancies Ltd HL 12-Dec-1991
Relief from forfeiture was available against a landlord who had peaceably re-entered property subject to a tenancy without a court order. Such a landlord was still ‘proceeding’ to enforce his rights of forfeiture until he obtained a judgment for . .
Cited – Lovelock v Margo CA 1963
The tenant wished to assign the lease. The lease contained the ‘usual covenant’ not to assign without consent, that consent not to be unreasonably withheld. The landlord had refused a request from the tenant to assign the lease because she was ‘not . .
Cited – Thatcher v CH Pearce and Sons (Contractors) Ltd 1968
(Bristol Assizes) The tenant was the tenant of a scrap yard. He had paid his rent promptly, until he was sent to prison. Thereafter he failed to pay the rent; and had no access to legal advice. The landlord peaceably re-entered for non-payment of . .
Cited – Crehan v Inntrepreneur Pub Company (CPC) CA 21-May-2004
The claimant had taken two leases, but had been made subject to beer ties with the defendant. He claimed damages for the losses, saying he had been forced to pay higher prices than those allowed to non-tied houses, and that the agreement was . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 15 October 2021; Ref: scu.234731

Khan v R M Falvey and Co (a Firm): CA 22 Mar 2002

The claimant sought damages from his former solicitors for failing to act to avoid his case being struck out. The second action was itself delayed, and the defendants asserted that the cause of action occurred not when his claim was actually struck out, but at the time when it could have been struck out.
Held: ‘where a tort is actionable only on proof of damage, the cause of action is not complete and time does not begin to run for the purposes of statutory limitation until actual damage occurs.’ The cause of action accrued on the occurrence of the first item of material loss. Damage in a claim for pure financial loss arose before the action was actually dismissed, and limitation ran accordingly.
Chadwick LJ said: ‘Typically, the effect of cumulative delay has been that it becomes increasingly difficult to resist an application to strike out based on the contention that it is no longer possible to have a fair trial. Although it may be possible to say in such cases that before a certain date the claim is not vulnerable to being struck out, and after another and later date it was so vulnerable, there would usually be a period of some months in respect of which there is room for a legitimate difference of view. But what can be said with some confidence is that during that period the value of the claim is diminishing as its vulnerability to strike out increases. It seems to me that once the action has entered that period it is impossible to say that damage has not occurred as a consequence of the previous delay. It is no answer that the damage may be difficult to quantify.’
Schiemann LJ said: ‘By the phrase ‘amenable to be struck out’ the pleader intended to convey that after 1990 there was no arguable defence to an application to strike out. This is common ground. On that basis the claimant had suffered damage from the defendant’s negligence by, at the latest, January 1, 1991 and his cause of action had arisen then. What had been (let us assume) a right of action against the debtor which was worth something, had become a right of action which was worth nothing. All the alleged negligence by the solicitor had occurred by then. The present action was not started until more than six years later. In those circumstances it is time barred.’
Sir Murray Stuart-Smith referred to the judgment of Hobhouse LJ in Hopkins v Mackenzie and said of it: ‘I share Hobhouse LJ’s difficulties. A claimant cannot defeat the statute of limitations by claiming only in respect of damage which occurs within the limitation period, if he has suffered actual damage from the same wrongful acts outside that period.’
Lord Justice Schiemann, Lord Justice Chadwick and Sir Murray Stuart-Smith
Times 12-Apr-2002, Gazette 10-May-2002, [2002] EWCA Civ 400, [2002] Lloyd’s Rep PN 369, [2002] PNLR 28
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Disapproved – Hopkins v Mackenzie CA 27-Oct-1994
A loss arising from a solicitor’s failure to pursue a case arose only when the claim was struck out, not earlier when compromised, and even though value already diminished. Accordingly the limitation period began to run from that time. . .
Cited – Nykredit Mortgage Bank Plc v Edward Erdman Group Ltd (No 2) HL 27-Nov-1997
A surveyor’s negligent valuation had led to the plaintiff obtaining what turned out to be inadequate security for his loan. A cause of action against a valuer for his negligent valuation arises when a relevant and measurable loss is first recorded. . .
Cited – Knapp v Ecclesiastical Insurance Group Plc and Another CA 30-Oct-1997
A claim in negligence was brought against insurance brokers for failing to advise the claimant of certain matters with the result that an insurance policy entered into by the claimant was voidable for non-disclosure.
Held: The claimant . .

Cited by:
Cited – Hatton v Messrs Chafes (A Firm) CA 13-Mar-2003
The defendant firm appealed against a refusal to strike out the claimant’s claim for professional negligence, asserting that the judge should have considered the limitation issue in the light of Khan v Falvey.
Held: By the time that the . .
Cited – The Law Society v Sephton and Co and others CA 13-Dec-2004
The Society appealed dismissal for limitation of its claim against the defendant firm of accountants arising from alleged fraud in approval of a solicitor’s accounts.
Held: The liability did not arise until the Society decided to make . .
Cited – Iqbal v Legal Services Commission CA 10-May-2005
The claimant had been a partner in a firm of solicitors. They came to be suspected by the respondent of overclaiming legal aid payments and sums were withheld. For this and other reasons the practice folded, and the claimant became insolvent. He . .
Cited – Vision Golf Ltd v Weightmans (A Firm) ChD 26-Jul-2005
A lease had been forfeited. The defendant firm of solicitors had negligently failed to apply for relief. They argued that that failure had in fact caused no loss to the claimants, since they would have lost the lease anyway.
Held: The ‘but . .
Cited – Luke v Kingsley Smith and Company and Others QBD 23-Jun-2003
The claimant sued various of those who had represented him in a claim against the Ministry of Defence. He believed that he had had to accept an inadequate sum in settlement after being at risk of losing the claim for non-prosecution. The defendant . .
Cited – St Anselm Development Company Ltd v Slaughter and May ChD 1-Feb-2013
The claimants appealed against rejection of their claim in negligence said to have been out of time. They had set out to sublet flats but their mistiming disallowed reclaiming of certain rents under the 1993 Act.
Held: The two flats were to be . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 15 October 2021; Ref: scu.168538

Hopkins v Mackenzie: CA 27 Oct 1994

A loss arising from a solicitor’s failure to pursue a case arose only when the claim was struck out, not earlier when compromised, and even though value already diminished. Accordingly the limitation period began to run from that time.
Hobhouse LJ
Times 03-Nov-1994, Independent 27-Oct-1994, Gazette 07-Dec-1994, [1995] PIQR 43
Limitation Act 1980
England and Wales
Cited by:
Disapproved – Khan v R M Falvey and Co (a Firm) CA 22-Mar-2002
The claimant sought damages from his former solicitors for failing to act to avoid his case being struck out. The second action was itself delayed, and the defendants asserted that the cause of action occurred not when his claim was actually struck . .
Cited – Iqbal v Legal Services Commission CA 10-May-2005
The claimant had been a partner in a firm of solicitors. They came to be suspected by the respondent of overclaiming legal aid payments and sums were withheld. For this and other reasons the practice folded, and the claimant became insolvent. He . .
Cited – Vision Golf Ltd v Weightmans (A Firm) ChD 26-Jul-2005
A lease had been forfeited. The defendant firm of solicitors had negligently failed to apply for relief. They argued that that failure had in fact caused no loss to the claimants, since they would have lost the lease anyway.
Held: The ‘but . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 15 October 2021; Ref: scu.81467

Warner v Penningtons (A Firm) and Others: CA 10 Mar 2011

In the course of being sued for professional negligence in their handling of a personal injury claim, the defendants sought to allege (inter alia) negligence by an expert who had provided a report. The defendants now appealed against summary judgment in her favour.
Rix, Smith, Keene LJJ
[2011] EWCA Civ 337
Bailii
England and Wales

Updated: 14 October 2021; Ref: scu.431730

McInerny v Lloyds Bank: CA 1974

When looking at liability for a negligent misstatement the court must find both a transaction which was the purpose of the giving of the advice and the foreseeability that the advice or statement would be relied upon in that transaction. While the test whether these requirements are fulfilled is objective, it must be answered by reference to what was, or ought to have been, within the parties knowledge.
Megaw LJ.
[1974] 1 Ll L R 246
England and Wales

Updated: 14 October 2021; Ref: scu.186282

Al Saudi Banque v Clarke Pixley: 1990

An auditor does not generally owe a duty of care in tort to a company’s creditors. Millet J referred to the Court of Appeal decision in Caparo: ‘In my judgment, Caparo’s case is binding authority for the following propositions. (i) In cases of negligent mis-statement, foreseeability that the plaintiff or someone in a similar position will rely up on the statement is a necessary but not sufficient condition for liability. (ii) In addition, it is necessary to establish a nexus or relationship between the parties sufficient to create a duty of care. That relationship can only be determined by close analysis in each case. The label applied to such a relationship is ‘proximity’, but there is no single definitive test. In some cases, it may be useful to consider whether there has been ‘a voluntary assumption of responsibility’, in others, whether the relationship is ‘equivalent to contract’. (iii) The necessary relationship exists between a company’s auditors and its members, because the auditors are under a statutory duty to report to the members and know that it is intended to send copies of their report to them. (iv) The relationship may also exist if the circumstances are such that the auditors can be taken impliedly to have represented the accuracy of the accounts to the plaintiff, and perhaps whenever they provide the accounts to the company with intention, or in the knowledge that it is the company’s intention, that they are to be supplied to the plaintiff or to persons in a class of which the plaintiff is one. (v) It is not necessary that the auditors should have any particular transaction in contemplation, or should intend the recipient of their report to act upon it in any such transaction. If the necessary relationship exists, it is enough if it is foreseeable that the recipient of the report may rely upon it in some future transaction, whether contemplated by the auditors or not, and whether with reference to his existing shareholding or not. (vi) The necessary relationship does not exist between a company’s auditors and potential investors who are not existing shareholders in the company. The fact that it is foreseeable that their report may come into their hands and be relied upon by them is not sufficient without more to create the relationship.’
and: ‘In the present case, the defendants did not make their reports to the plaintiff banks or to any other person with the intention or in the knowledge that they would be communicated to them. The most that can be said is that it was foreseeable that, if any of the plaintiff banks wished to consider the continuance or renewal of existing facilities or the grant of additional facilities, it might well call for copies of the company’s latest audited accounts and rely upon them and the accompanying auditors’ report . . The fact that the plaintiffs are a small and limited class and known to the defendants reduces the seriousness of the consequences of holding that a duty of care exists and may make it less unjust or less unreasonable to impose such a duty; but it cannot by itself create a relationship between the parties. What needs to be shown is not knowledge of their identity but, at the very least, knowledge of an intention that the information will be provided to them.’
Millett J
[1990] 2 WLR 344, [1990] Ch 313
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Caparo Industries Plc v Dickman and others HL 8-Feb-1990
Limitation of Loss from Negligent Mis-statement
The plaintiffs sought damages from accountants for negligence. They had acquired shares in a target company and, relying upon the published and audited accounts which overstated the company’s earnings, they purchased further shares.
Held: The . .
Cited – Moore Stephens (A Firm) v Stone Rolls Ltd (in liquidation) HL 30-Jul-2009
The appellants had audited the books of the respondent company, but had failed to identify substantial frauds by an employee of the respondent. The auditors appealed a finding of professional negligence, relying on the maxim ex turpi causa non . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 08 October 2021; Ref: scu.179812

Sutton v Mishcon de Reya (a Firm) and Another: ChD 19 Dec 2003

Two men entering into a relationship of ‘master and slave’ signed a document entitled a ‘statement of trust’ intended to regulate the property arrangements as between themselves. They later signed a cohabitation agreement. They were advised that it was unenforceable, and were advised to seek independent advice. Property was conveyed into one name. They later claimed the defendant was negligent in referring to the statement of trust which was likely to be void as contrary to public policy.
Held: The court should distinguish between a property contract between two people whose sexual relationship brought them to live together, and a property relationship springing from the sexual relationship. A contract between consenting adults would not be avoided under public policy unless it was meretritious or for prostitution. The statement of trust was an attempt to express the sexual relationship in a property contract. Neither law firm was negligent. Even had the statement of trust been void, it would have had to have been referred to.
Hart J
Times 28-Jan-2004
England and Wales

Updated: 01 October 2021; Ref: scu.193408

Green and Another v Alexander Johnson (A Firm) and Another: ChD 26 May 2004

The judgment related to the assessment of damages for professional negligence by the defendants. The court deprecated the practice of separating off assessments of damages from the principal claim, since this created a risk of confusion. The defendants had advised on applications to extend leases, and had failed to deny that they qualified to be extended, and new leases had to be granted.
Held: The difficulties would have occurred whether or not correct advice had been given, and the court was unable to say the negligence was the cause of the damage. The basis for the credit to be given for the claim was the amount of valuation, not the sums actually received.
The Honourable Mr Justice Peter Smith
[2004] EWHC 1205 (Ch)
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – South Australia Asset Management Corporation v York Montague Ltd etc HL 24-Jun-1996
Limits of Damages for Negligent Valuations
Damages for negligent valuations are limited to the foreseeable consequences of advice, and do not include losses arising from a general fall in values. Valuation is seldom an exact science, and within a band of figures valuers may differ without . .
Cited – In re the Oropesa CA 1943
Two steam vessels collided. One’s Master sent fifty of his crew in boats to the other ship and about an hour and a half after the collision decided himself to go to that ship and confer with her Master on measures to be taken. He transferred in . .
Cited – Bell v Peter Browne and Co CA 1990
Mr Bell asked his solicitors to transfer the matrimonial home into his wife’s sole name. He was to receive a one-sixth interest of the gross proceeds on a sale. His interests were to be protected by a trust deed or mortgage. The solicitor drafted . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 01 October 2021; Ref: scu.197841

Le Lievre v Gould: CA 6 Feb 1893

Mortgagees of the interest of a builder under a building agreement, advanced money to him from time to time, relying upon certificates given by a surveyor as to stages reached. The surveyor was not appointed by the mortgagees, and there was no contract between them. The surveyor was negligent, and his certificates contained untrue statements as to progress, but there was no fraud on his part.
Held: The surveyor owed no duty to the mortgagees to exercise care in giving his certificates, and they could not maintain an action against him by reason of his negligence.
Lord Esher MR said: ‘But can the plaintiffs rely upon negligence in the absence of fraud? The question of liability for negligence cannot arise at all until it is established that the man who has been negligent owed some duty to the person who seeks to make him liable for his negligence. What duty is there when there is no relation between the parties by contract? A man is entitled to be as negligent as he pleases towards the whole world if he owes no duty to them. The case of Heaven v. Pender has no bearing upon the present question. That case established that, under certain circumstances, one man may owe a duty to another even though there is no contract between them. If one man is near to another, or is near to the property of another, a duty lies upon him not to do that which may cause a personal injury to that other, or may injure his property.’
Bowen LJ said: ‘the law . . does not consider that what a man writes on paper is like a gun or other dangerous instrument’ and also refered to the principle: ‘that a duty to take due care did arise when the person or property of one was in such proximity to the person or property of another that, if due care was not taken, damage might be done by the one to the other.’
Smith LJ said: ‘The decision of Heaven -v- Pender was founded upon the principle, that a duty to take due care did arise when the person or property of one was in such proximity to the person or property of another that, if due care was not taken, damage might be done by the one to the other. Heaven v. Pender goes no further than this, though it is often cited to support all kinds of untenable propositions.’
Lord Esher MR, AL Smith LJ, Bowen LJ
[1893] 1 QB 491, (1893) 9 The Times LR 243, (1893) 62 LJQB 353, (1893) 68 LT 626, (1893) 57 JP 484, [1893] UKLawRpKQB 27
Commonlii
England and Wales
Citing:
Distinguished – Heaven v Pender, Trading As West India Graving Dock Company CA 30-Jul-1883
Duty Arising to Use Ordinary Care and Skill
The plaintiff was a painter. His employer engaged to repaint a ship, and the defendant erected staging to support the work. The staging collapsed because one of the ropes was singed and weakened, injuring the plaintiff.
Held: The defendant had . .

Cited by:
Cited – Mutual Life And Citizens’ Assurance Co Ltd And Another v Evatt PC 16-Nov-1971
The plaintiff had been an investor with the defendant. He asked them about an associated company. He was given advice which was incorrect. He claimed damages for negligence.
Held: The company was not itself in the business of giving such . .
Cited – Donoghue (or M’Alister) v Stevenson HL 26-May-1932
Decomposed Snail in Ginger Beer Bottle – Liability
The appellant drank from a bottle of ginger beer manufactured by the defendant. She suffered injury when she found a half decomposed snail in the liquid. The glass was opaque and the snail could not be seen. The drink had been bought for her by a . .
Cited – Hedley Byrne and Co Ltd v Heller and Partners Ltd HL 28-May-1963
Banker’s Liability for Negligent Reference
The appellants were advertising agents. They were liable themselves for advertising space taken for a client, and had sought a financial reference from the defendant bankers to the client. The reference was negligent, but the bankers denied any . .
Cited – Candler v Crane Christmas and Co CA 15-Dec-1950
Though the accounts of the company in which the plaintiff had invested had been carelessly prepared and gave a wholly misleading picture of the state of the company, the plaintiff could not recover damages. A false statement, carelessly, as . .
Cited – Sutradhar v Natural Environment Research Council HL 5-Jul-2006
Preliminary Report of Risk – No Duty of Care
The claimant sought damages after suffering injury after the creation of water supplies which were polluted with arsenic. He said that a report had identified the risks. The defendant said that the report was preliminary only and could not found a . .
Cited – Alcock and Others v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police QBD 31-Jul-1990
Overcrowding at a football match lead to the deaths of 95 people. The defendant’s employees had charge of safety at the match, and admitted negligence vis-a-vis those who had died and been injured. The plaintiffs sought damages, some of them for . .
Cited – Manners v Whitehead SCS 1898
(Inner House) An innocent misrepresentation does not give rise to damages. To be actionable it must be made fraudulently, but a person to whom a fraudulent representation of the profitability of a business, or a business opportunity, had been made . .
Cited – Cramaso Llp v Ogilvie-Grant, Earl of Seafield and Others SC 12-Feb-2014
The defenders owned a substantial grouse moor in Scotland. There had been difficulties with grouse stocks, and steps taken over years to allow stocks to recover. They had responded to enquiries from one Mr Erskine with misleading figures. Mr Erskine . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 29 September 2021; Ref: scu.181006

Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust: SC 10 Oct 2018

The claimant had been assaulted. He presented at the defendant hospital with head injuries. Despite his complaints he said he was not treated properly, being told to wait five hours at reception, and went home. Later an ambulance was delayed and he suffered a serious brain injury. The hospital denied a duty of care in the receptionist.
Held: The appeal was allowed and the case remitted to first instance for the assessment of damages.
The decision of the Court of Appeal was flawed. The true question was not whether a duty of care was owed to the claimant, but whether the defendant had breached its duty in giving, by its receptionist, inaccurate information to the claimant about waiting times. It had done so: ‘The appellant was misinformed as to the true position and, as a result, misled as to the availability of medical assistance. The trial judge made the critical finding that it was reasonably foreseeable that a person who believes that it may be four or five hours before he will be seen by a doctor may decide to leave. In the light of that finding I have no doubt that the provision of such misleading information by a receptionist as to the time within which medical assistance might be available was negligent.’
Lady Hale, President, Lord Reed, Deputy President, Lord Kerr, Lord Hodge, Lord Lloyd-Jones
[2018] UKSC 50, [2018] 3 WLR 1153, [2019] 1 All ER 27, [2019] AC 831, [2018] Med LR 595, [2019] PIQR P4, (2019) 165 BMLR 1, UKSC 2017/0070
Bailii, Bailii Summary, SC, SC Summary, SC Summary Video, SC 2018 Jun 07 am Video
England and Wales
Citing:
At First Instance – Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust QBD 31-Jul-2015
The claimant sought damages, alleging that the defendant Trust had failed in its treatment of him when he attended Accident and Emergency after being assaulted. The court now considered the issue of liability. The claimant attended with a head . .
Appeal from – Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust CA 23-Mar-2017
Claimant’s appeal in personal injury litigation based upon alleged negligence by the receptionist in a hospital’s accident and emergency department. The principal issue in the appeal is whether the receptionist (or the health trust acting by the . .
Cited – Barnett v Chelsea and Kensington Hospital Management Committee QBD 1968
The widow of a night watchman who died of arsenic poisoning claimed in negligence after he had attended the defendant’s hospital, but was negligently sent home without adequate treatment.
Held: The court was satisfied that even if the . .
Cited – Caparo Industries Plc v Dickman and others HL 8-Feb-1990
Limitation of Loss from Negligent Mis-statement
The plaintiffs sought damages from accountants for negligence. They had acquired shares in a target company and, relying upon the published and audited accounts which overstated the company’s earnings, they purchased further shares.
Held: The . .
Cited – Kent v Griffiths and Others (No 2) CA 10-Feb-2000
An ambulance service could be liable in negligence in respect of its response to an emergency call-out where for no good reason there was an unreasonable delay in responding, and the servivice had accepted the call. The ambulance service was . .
Cited – James-Bowen and Others v Commissioner of Police of The Metropolis SC 25-Jul-2018
The Court was asked whether the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (‘the Commissioner’) owes a duty to her officers, in the conduct of proceedings against her based on their alleged misconduct, to take reasonable care to protect them from . .
Cited – Michael and Others v The Chief Constable of South Wales Police and Another SC 28-Jan-2015
The claimants asserted negligence in the defendant in failing to provide an adequate response to an emergency call, leading, they said to the death of their daughter at the hands of her violent partner. They claimed also under the 1998 Act. The . .
Cited – Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust CA 23-Mar-2017
Claimant’s appeal in personal injury litigation based upon alleged negligence by the receptionist in a hospital’s accident and emergency department. The principal issue in the appeal is whether the receptionist (or the health trust acting by the . .
Cited – Robinson v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police SC 8-Feb-2018
Limits to Police Exemption from Liability
The claimant, an elderly lady was bowled over and injured when police were chasing a suspect through the streets. As they arrested him they fell over on top of her. She appealed against refusal of her claim in negligence.
Held: Her appeal . .
Cited – Wilsher v Essex Area Health Authority CA 1986
A prematurely-born baby was the subject of certain medical procedures, in the course of which a breach of duty occurred. to ensure that the correct amount was administered it was necessary to insert a catheter into an umbilical artery so that his . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 27 September 2021; Ref: scu.625427

Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust: CA 23 Mar 2017

Claimant’s appeal in personal injury litigation based upon alleged negligence by the receptionist in a hospital’s accident and emergency department. The principal issue in the appeal is whether the receptionist (or the health trust acting by the receptionist) owed any tortious duty to provide accurate information to the claimant about waiting times.
Jackson, McCombe, Sales LJJ
[2017] EWCA Civ 151
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust QBD 31-Jul-2015
The claimant sought damages, alleging that the defendant Trust had failed in its treatment of him when he attended Accident and Emergency after being assaulted. The court now considered the issue of liability. The claimant attended with a head . .

Cited by:
Appeal from – Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust SC 10-Oct-2018
The claimant had been assaulted. He presented at the defendant hospital with head injuries. Despite his complaints he said he was not treated properly, being told to wait five hours at reception, and went home. Later an ambulance was delayed and he . .
Cited – Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust SC 10-Oct-2018
The claimant had been assaulted. He presented at the defendant hospital with head injuries. Despite his complaints he said he was not treated properly, being told to wait five hours at reception, and went home. Later an ambulance was delayed and he . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 27 September 2021; Ref: scu.581069

Kent v Griffiths and Others (No 2): CA 10 Feb 2000

An ambulance service could be liable in negligence in respect of its response to an emergency call-out where for no good reason there was an unreasonable delay in responding, and the servivice had accepted the call. The ambulance service was distinguishable from the fire and police services. They owed a duty over and above the need not to add to the claimant’s suffering. There could be no rational reason for not responding. There was a duty of care, and the delay added to the injury. Taking an example of a police officer the example of a police officer helping a pedestrian across the road: ‘If the policeman assumes this task there is no reason of policy or proximity why he should be in any different position from a school teacher who performs this task and, if this is appropriate on the facts, is liable for negligence.’
Lord Woolf MR Aldous and Laws LJJ
Times 10-Feb-2000, Gazette 17-Feb-2000, [2000] 2 All ER 474, [2001] 1 QB 36, [2000] EWCA Civ 25
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Kent v Doctor Griffiths, Doctor Roberts, The London Ambulance Service QBD 16-Jul-1999
The claimant suffered a respiratory arrest after an emergency ambulance called by the first defendant, did not arrive for 40 minutes.
Held: the ambulance service was negligenct and liable. The acceptance of the doctor’s request for an . .

Cited by:
Cited – Mullaney v Chief Constable of West Midlands Police CA 15-May-2001
The claimant police officer was severely injured making an arrest. He claimed damages from the respondent for contributory negligence of other officers in failing to come to his assistance.
Held: If a police officer owes a duty of care to . .
Cited – Jane Marianne Sandhar, John Stuart Murray v Department of Transport, Environment and the Regions CA 5-Nov-2004
The claimant’s husband died when his car skidded on hoar frost. She claimed the respondent was liable under the Act and at common law for failing to keep it safe.
Held: The respondent had not assumed a general responsibility to all road users . .
Cited – Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust SC 10-Oct-2018
The claimant had been assaulted. He presented at the defendant hospital with head injuries. Despite his complaints he said he was not treated properly, being told to wait five hours at reception, and went home. Later an ambulance was delayed and he . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 27 September 2021; Ref: scu.82746

Barnett v Chelsea and Kensington Hospital Management Committee: QBD 1968

The widow of a night watchman who died of arsenic poisoning claimed in negligence after he had attended the defendant’s hospital, but was negligently sent home without adequate treatment.
Held: The court was satisfied that even if the defendants had performed their duty of care and admitted the deceased to their hospital, he would still have died of arsenic poisoning five hours after being admitted, and that he therefore suffered no loss as a consequence of the breach of duty complained of.
The court distinguished between a casualty department of a hospital that closes its doors and says no patients can be received, in which case he would, by inference, have held there was no duty of care, and the case before him where the three watchmen, who had taken poison, entered the hospital and were given erroneous advice, where a duty of care arose. However, the watchman would have died from arsenic poisoning even if the hospital casualty department had treated him properly, and the hospital’s negligence was not a necessary element in the conditions which led to the watchman’s death. No damages were payable.
Nield J
[1969] 1 QB 428, [1968] 1 All ER 1068, [1968] 2 WLR 422
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Gregg v Scott HL 27-Jan-2005
The patient saw his doctor and complained about a lump under his arm. The doctor failed to diagnose cancer. It was nine months before treatment was begun. The claimant sought damages for the reduction in his prospects of disease-free survival for . .
Cited – Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust SC 10-Oct-2018
The claimant had been assaulted. He presented at the defendant hospital with head injuries. Despite his complaints he said he was not treated properly, being told to wait five hours at reception, and went home. Later an ambulance was delayed and he . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 27 September 2021; Ref: scu.222467

Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust: QBD 31 Jul 2015

The claimant sought damages, alleging that the defendant Trust had failed in its treatment of him when he attended Accident and Emergency after being assaulted. The court now considered the issue of liability. The claimant attended with a head injury, and having been given misleading information as to waiting times he had left. His condition deteriorated and left him a left hemiplegia.
Held: The claim failed. A civilian receptionist had no duty of care to guard patients from a failure to wait for treatment.
Robinson HHJ
[2015] EWHC 2301 (QB), [2015] WLR(D) 348, [2015] PTSR D54
Bailii, WLRD
England and Wales
Cited by:
Appeal from – Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust CA 23-Mar-2017
Claimant’s appeal in personal injury litigation based upon alleged negligence by the receptionist in a hospital’s accident and emergency department. The principal issue in the appeal is whether the receptionist (or the health trust acting by the . .
At First Instance – Darnley v Croydon Health Services NHS Trust SC 10-Oct-2018
The claimant had been assaulted. He presented at the defendant hospital with head injuries. Despite his complaints he said he was not treated properly, being told to wait five hours at reception, and went home. Later an ambulance was delayed and he . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 27 September 2021; Ref: scu.550963

White and Another v Jones and Another: CA 5 Mar 1993

A solicitor’s liability in negligence extends to a potential beneficiary of the will, from delay in making a will.
Gazette 16-Jun-1993, Times 09-Mar-1993, Independent 05-Mar-1993
England and Wales
Citing:
Appealed to – White and Another v Jones and Another HL 16-Feb-1995
Will Drafter liable in Negligence to Beneficiary
A solicitor drawing a will may be liable in negligence to a potential beneficiary, having unduly delayed in the drawing of the will. The Hedley Byrne principle was ‘founded upon an assumption of responsibility.’ Obligations may occasionally arise . .

Cited by:
Appeal from – White and Another v Jones and Another HL 16-Feb-1995
Will Drafter liable in Negligence to Beneficiary
A solicitor drawing a will may be liable in negligence to a potential beneficiary, having unduly delayed in the drawing of the will. The Hedley Byrne principle was ‘founded upon an assumption of responsibility.’ Obligations may occasionally arise . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 14 September 2021; Ref: scu.90459

Khan v Meadows: SC 18 Jun 2021

‘ A woman approaches a general medical practice for testing to establish whether she is a carrier of a hereditary disease. Tests which are inappropriate to answer that question are arranged. A general medical practitioner when informing her of the results of those tests negligently fails to advise her that she needs a genetic test to establish whether she is a carrier of the relevant gene. In fact, she is a carrier of the disease. Several years later, she gives birth to a baby boy who sadly not only suffers from the hereditary disease but also has an unrelated disability. Is the medical practitioner liable in negligence for the costs of bringing up the disabled child who has both conditions or only for those costs which are associated with the hereditary disease?’
Lord Reed, President, Lord Hodge, Deputy President, Lady Black, Lord Kitchin, Lord Sales, Lord Leggatt, Lord Burrows
[2021] UKSC 21, [2021] 3 WLR 147
Bailii, Bli Press Summary, Bli Issues and Facts
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – South Australia Asset Management Corporation v York Montague Ltd etc HL 24-Jun-1996
Limits of Damages for Negligent Valuations
Damages for negligent valuations are limited to the foreseeable consequences of advice, and do not include losses arising from a general fall in values. Valuation is seldom an exact science, and within a band of figures valuers may differ without . .
At First Instance – Meadows v Khan QBD 23-Nov-2017
Claim for the additional costs of raising the claimant’s son, A, who suffered from both haemophilia and autism. It is admitted that, but for the defendant’s negligence, A would not have been born because his mother would have discovered during her . .
At CA – Khan v Meadows CA 15-Feb-2019
Appeal from the judgment of Yip J who determined that the costs related to the autism of Adejuwon, the respondent’s son, following his birth may be properly recovered by her and assessed damages in the agreed sum of pounds 9,000,000. Adejuwon . .

Cited by:
Decided together – Manchester Building Society v Grant Thornton UK Llp SC 18-Jun-2021
Was the Court of Appeal was right to hold that the break costs claimed by the Appellant fell outside the scope of the Respondent’s duty of care as professional accountants? . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 16 August 2021; Ref: scu.663388

Steel and Another v NRAM Ltd (Formerly NRAM Plc): SC 28 Feb 2018

The appellant solicitor acted in a land transaction. The land was mortgaged to the respondent bank. She wrote to the bank stating her client’s intention to repay the whole loan. The letter was negligently mistaken and the bankers allowed the discharge of the property without repayment of the loan. The appellant denied having a duty of care to the bank, and appealed against a finding that she did.
Held: The appeal succeeded. The concept in negligence of assumption of responsibility remains the foundation of liability for a careless misrepresentation, though the concept may sometimes require cautious incremental development if it is to fit cases to which it does not readily apply. The appellant expected properly, that the bank would make its own checks of what she said before releasing the forms of discharge.
A solicitor will not normally assume responsibility towards the opposite party unless it was reasonable for the latter to have relied on what the solicitor said, and unless the solicitor should reasonably have foreseen that the opposite party would actually rely on the statement. The two ingredients of reasonable reliance and foreseeability have particular relevance in a claim against a solicitor by the opposing party, because it is generally inappropriate for a solicitor to assume such a responsibility towards the other side.
Orse: NRAM Ltd (formerly NRAM plc) v Steel
Lady Hale, President, Lord Wilson,Lord Reed, Lord Hodge, Lady Black
[2018] UKSC 13, [2018] 3 All ER 81, [2018] 1 WLR 1190, 2019 SCLR 379, [2018] WLR(D) 124, 2018 GWD 24-311, [2018] PNLR 21, 2018 SLT 835, UKSC 2016/0111
Bailii, Bailii Summary, SC, SC Summary, SC Summary Video, SC 2017 Nov 07 am Video, SC 2017 Nov 07 pm Video
Scotland
Citing:
Cited – Hedley Byrne and Co Ltd v Heller and Partners Ltd HL 28-May-1963
Banker’s Liability for Negligent Reference
The appellants were advertising agents. They were liable themselves for advertising space taken for a client, and had sought a financial reference from the defendant bankers to the client. The reference was negligent, but the bankers denied any . .
Cited – Smith v Eric S Bush, a firm etc HL 20-Apr-1989
In Smith, the lender instructed a valuer who knew that the buyer and mortgagee were likely to rely on his valuation alone. The valuer said his terms excluded responsibility. The mortgagor had paid an inspection fee to the building society and . .
Cited – Caparo Industries Plc v Dickman and others HL 8-Feb-1990
Limitation of Loss from Negligent Mis-statement
The plaintiffs sought damages from accountants for negligence. They had acquired shares in a target company and, relying upon the published and audited accounts which overstated the company’s earnings, they purchased further shares.
Held: The . .
Cited – Robinson v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police SC 8-Feb-2018
Limits to Police Exemption from Liability
The claimant, an elderly lady was bowled over and injured when police were chasing a suspect through the streets. As they arrested him they fell over on top of her. She appealed against refusal of her claim in negligence.
Held: Her appeal . .
At Inner House – NRAM Plc v Jane Steel and Bell and Another SCS 19-Feb-2016
(Extra Division, Inner House) The bank had relied upon mistaken statements by the solicitor acting for a client as to the intention to repay its debts. Without checking, the bank issued the documents to release their security. It now appealed from . .
Cited – Michael and Others v The Chief Constable of South Wales Police and Another SC 28-Jan-2015
The claimants asserted negligence in the defendant in failing to provide an adequate response to an emergency call, leading, they said to the death of their daughter at the hands of her violent partner. They claimed also under the 1998 Act. The . .
Cited – HM Customs and Excise v Barclays Bank Plc HL 21-Jun-2006
The claimant had served an asset freezing order on the bank in respect of one of its customers. The bank paid out on a cheque inadvertently as to the order. The Commissioners claimed against the bank in negligence. The bank denied any duty of care. . .
Cited – James McNaughton Paper Group Ltd v Hicks Anderson and Co CA 31-Jul-1990
When considering the liability of an auditor in negligence, the fact and nature of any communications direct between the auditor and the potential investor must be allowed for. The court set out a non-exhaustive list of factors to be taken into . .
Cited – Ross v Caunters (a firm) ChD 1979
The court upheld a finding of negligence against a firm of solicitors for failing to ensure the correct attestation of a will, and also the award of damages in favour of a disappointed beneficiary.
A solicitor owes a duty of care to the party . .
Cited – Spring v Guardian Assurance Plc and Others HL 7-Jul-1994
The plaintiff, who worked in financial services, complained of the terms of the reference given by his former employer. Having spoken of his behaviour towards members of the team, it went on: ‘his former superior has further stated he is a man of . .
Cited – Allied Finance and Investments Ltd v Haddow and Co 1983
(New Zealand Court of Appeal) The claimant had agreed to make a loan to X and to take security for it on a yacht. The defendants, who were X’s solicitors, certified to the claimant that the instrument of security executed by X in relation to the . .
Cited – Midland Bank Plc v Cameron, Thom, Peterkin and Duncans SCS 1988
(Outer House) The pursuer had made a loan to X in assumed reliance on a statement by the defenders, who were X’s solicitors, about the extent of his assets. The statement was materially inaccurate. But the pursuer’s claim against the defenders . .
Cited – Al-Kandari v J R Brown and Co CA 1988
A solicitor had undertaken to look after certain passports, but failed to do so. The husband had twice previously kidnapped his children whose custody was an issue before the court. Once the husband regained the passports, he again fled with the . .
Cited – Trent Strategic Health Authority v Jain and Another HL 21-Jan-2009
The claimants’ nursing home business had been effectively destroyed by the actions of the Authority which had applied to revoke their licence without them being given notice and opportunity to reply. They succeeded on appeal, but the business was by . .
Cited – Dean v Allin and Watts (a Firm) CA 23-May-2001
An unsophisticated lender running the business of a car mechanic wanted to lend money to borrowers on the security of real property owned by an associate of the borrowers. The borrowers instructed the defendant solicitors to give effect to this . .
Cited – Henderson v Merrett Syndicates Ltd HL 25-Jul-1994
Lloyds Agents Owe Care Duty to Member; no Contract
Managing agents conducted the financial affairs of the Lloyds Names belonging to the syndicates under their charge. It was alleged that they managed these affairs with a lack of due careleading to enormous losses.
Held: The assumption of . .
Cited – Connell v Odlum 1993
(New Zealand Court of Appeal) Prior to his marriage to W, the claimant wished to enter with her into an agreement of which the statutory effect would be to contract them out of the law’s general provisions for the making of financial adjustments . .
Cited – Gran Gelato Ltd v Richcliff (Group) Ltd ChD 1992
The claimant wished to purchase an underlease from the first defendant. The claimant’s solicitors inquired of the second defendants, a firm of solicitors acting for the first defendant, whether any provisions in the headlease might affect the length . .

Cited by:
Cited – James-Bowen and Others v Commissioner of Police of The Metropolis SC 25-Jul-2018
The Court was asked whether the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (‘the Commissioner’) owes a duty to her officers, in the conduct of proceedings against her based on their alleged misconduct, to take reasonable care to protect them from . .
Cited – Banca Nazionale Del Lavoro Spa v Playboy Club London Ltd and Others SC 26-Jul-2018
The Playboy casino required a reference for a customer, but asked for this through a third party. The bank was not aware of the agency but gave a good reference for a customer who had never deposited any money with them and nor to whom it had issued . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 11 August 2021; Ref: scu.605621

Candler v Crane Christmas and Co: CA 15 Dec 1950

Though the accounts of the company in which the plaintiff had invested had been carelessly prepared and gave a wholly misleading picture of the state of the company, the plaintiff could not recover damages. A false statement, carelessly, as contrasted with fraudulently, made by one person to another though acted on by that other to his detriment, was not actionable in the absence of any contractual or fiduciary relationship between the parties. This principle had not been qualified Donoghue v. Stevenson.
Denning LJ (dissenting) said:’Accountants, in preparing and rendering accounts and reports, owed a duty of care not only to their clients but to any third person to whom they knew that their clients were going to show the accounts and reports when, to the knowledge of the accountants, that person would consider the reports and accounts with a view to the investment of money or taking some other action to his gain or detriment. ‘Let me now be constructive and suggest the circumstance in which I say that a duty to use care in statement does exist apart from a contract in that behalf. First, what person’s are under such duty? My answer is those persons such as accountants, surveyors, valuers and analysts, whose profession and occupation it is to examine books, accounts, and other things, and to make reports on which other people – other than their clients – rely in the ordinary course of business.
Secondly to whom do these professional people owe this duty? I will take accountants but the same reasoning applies to the others. They owe the duty, of course to their employer or clients; and also I think to any third person to whom they themselves show the accounts, or to whom they know their employer is going to show the accounts, so as to induce him to invest money or take some other action on them. But I do not think the duty can be extended still further so to include strangers of whom they have heard nothing and to whom their employer without their knowledge may choose to show their accounts. Once the accountants have handed their accounts to their employer they not, as a rule, responsible for what he does with them without their knowledge or consent. The test of proximity in these cases is, did the accountants know that the accounts were required for submission to the plaintiff and use by him?
Thirdly, to what transactions does the duty of care extend? It extends, I think, only to those transactions for which the accountants knew their accounts were required.’
Asquith LJ illustrated the law excusing liability for negligent miststatement: ‘Singular consequences would follow if the principle laid down in [Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562] were applied to negligent misrepresentation in every case in which the representee were proximate to the representor. The case has been instanced by Professor Winfield and referred to by my brother Denning of a marine hydrographer who carelessly omits to indicate on his map the existence of a reef. The captain of the Queen Mary, in reliance on the map and having no opportunity to check it by reference to any other map, steers her on the unsuspected rocks, and she becomes a total loss. Is the unfortunate cartographer to be liable to her owners in negligence for some millions of pounds damages? If so, people will, in future, think twice before making maps. Cartography would become an ultra-hazardous occupation.’
Cohen, Asquith, Denning LJJ (Dissenting)
[1951] 2 KB 164, [1951] 1 All ER 426, 36 Digest (Rep 1) 17, [1951] 1 TLR 371
England and Wales
Citing:
Distinguished – Donoghue (or M’Alister) v Stevenson HL 26-May-1932
Decomposed Snail in Ginger Beer Bottle – Liability
The appellant drank from a bottle of ginger beer manufactured by the defendant. She suffered injury when she found a half decomposed snail in the liquid. The glass was opaque and the snail could not be seen. The drink had been bought for her by a . .
Cited – Le Lievre v Gould CA 6-Feb-1893
Mortgagees of the interest of a builder under a building agreement, advanced money to him from time to time, relying upon certificates given by a surveyor as to stages reached. The surveyor was not appointed by the mortgagees, and there was no . .
Cited – Derry v Peek HL 1-Jul-1889
The House heard an action for damages for deceit or fraudulent misrepresentation.
Held: The court set out the requirements for fraud, saying that fraud is proved when it is shown that a false representation has been made knowingly or without . .

Cited by:
Cited – Caparo Industries Plc v Dickman and others HL 8-Feb-1990
Limitation of Loss from Negligent Mis-statement
The plaintiffs sought damages from accountants for negligence. They had acquired shares in a target company and, relying upon the published and audited accounts which overstated the company’s earnings, they purchased further shares.
Held: The . .
Cited – Mutual Life And Citizens’ Assurance Co Ltd And Another v Evatt PC 16-Nov-1971
The plaintiff had been an investor with the defendant. He asked them about an associated company. He was given advice which was incorrect. He claimed damages for negligence.
Held: The company was not itself in the business of giving such . .
Cited – Bank of Credit and Commerce International (Overseas) Limited (In Liquidation); BCCI Holdings (Luxembourg) SA (In Liquidation); Bank of Credit and Commerce International SA (In Liquidation) v Price Waterhouse CA 13-Feb-1998
The special relationship between an auditor and a bank, meant that a duty of care could extend even to a second bank with its own auditors. In determining whether there had been an assumption of responsibility, the the relevant factors would include . .
Approved – Hedley Byrne and Co Ltd v Heller and Partners Ltd HL 28-May-1963
Banker’s Liability for Negligent Reference
The appellants were advertising agents. They were liable themselves for advertising space taken for a client, and had sought a financial reference from the defendant bankers to the client. The reference was negligent, but the bankers denied any . .
Applied – Yianni v Edwin Evans and Sons ChD 1981
The respondent valuers reported to a building society that a property would be a sufficient security. The purchaser relied on that report to purchase the property, ignoring the advice in the lender’s form to obtain a full survey. The property was . .
Cited – Customs and Excise v Barclays Bank Plc CA 22-Nov-2004
The claimant had obtained judgment against customers of the defendant, and then freezing orders for the accounts. The defendants inadvertently or negligently allowed sums to be transferred from the accounts. The claimants sought repayment by the . .
Cited – Midland Bank Trust Co Ltd v Hett Stubbs and Kemp (a firm) ChD 1978
A solicitor had failed to register an option as a land charge over property. The court was asked what steps should have been taken by a solicitor in the conduct of a claim: ‘Mr Harman [leading counsel for the plaintiff] sought to rely upon the fact . .
Cited – Precis (521) Plc v William M Mercer Ltd CA 15-Feb-2005
Purchasers of a company sought to claim in negligence against the respondent actuaries in respect of a valuation of the company’s pension funds.
Held: There was a paucity of authority as to when a duty of care was assumed. The words used and . .
Cited – Sutradhar v Natural Environment Research Council HL 5-Jul-2006
Preliminary Report of Risk – No Duty of Care
The claimant sought damages after suffering injury after the creation of water supplies which were polluted with arsenic. He said that a report had identified the risks. The defendant said that the report was preliminary only and could not found a . .
Cited – McKie v Swindon College QBD 11-Feb-2011
The claimant sought damages after having moved jobs, his former employer wrote to his new one saying that he would not be welcome back on the campus, which would be a substantial part, giving reasons.
Held: The claimant succeeded on liability. . .
Cited – Banca Nazionale Del Lavoro Spa v Playboy Club London Ltd and Others SC 26-Jul-2018
The Playboy casino required a reference for a customer, but asked for this through a third party. The bank was not aware of the agency but gave a good reference for a customer who had never deposited any money with them and nor to whom it had issued . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 11 August 2021; Ref: scu.179811

Webster v Sandersons Solicitors (A Firm): CA 31 Jul 2009

The claimant apealed against refusal of permission to amend his claim for negligence against his former solicitors by adding claims from 1993 and 1994
Lord Clarke MR, Arden J, Lloyd LJ
[2009] EWCA Civ 830, [2009] 2 BCLC 542, [2009] PNLR 37
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Giles v Rhind CA 17-Oct-2002
An action by a company under a shareholder’s agreement was compromised. The other shareholder now sought to commence an action against the party in breach for his personal losses. The defendant argued that the company’s compromise was binding also . .
Cited – Foss v Harbottle 25-Mar-1843
A bill was lodged by two of the proprietors of shares in a company incorporated by Act of Parliament, on their own and the other shareholders’ behalf. They claimed against three bankrupt directors, a proprietor, solicitor and architect charging them . .
Cited – Prudential Assurance Co Ltd v Newman Industries Ltd (No 2) CA 1982
A plaintiff shareholder cannot recover damages merely because the company in which he has an interest has suffered damage. He cannot recover a sum equal to the diminution in the market value of his shares, or equal to the likely diminution in . .
Cited – Johnson v Gore Wood and Co HL 14-Dec-2000
Shareholder May Sue for Additional Personal Losses
A company brought a claim of negligence against its solicitors, and, after that claim was settled, the company’s owner brought a separate claim in respect of the same subject-matter.
Held: It need not be an abuse of the court for a shareholder . .
Cited – Day v Cook CA 26-Apr-2001
. .
Cited – Cohen v Kingsley Napley and Another CA 10-Feb-2006
. .
Cited – Gardner v Parker CA 25-Jun-2004
The court considered the extent to which a shareholder or creditor of a company who has suffered loss, as the result of a breach of duties owed both to him and the company by a defendant, is nonetheless debarred from recovering that loss, because . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 09 August 2021; Ref: scu.368606

Thompstone v Tameside and Glossop Acute Services NHS Trust: QBD 23 Nov 2006

Swift DBE J
[2006] EWHC 2904 (QB), [2007] LS Law Medical 71
Bailii
England and Wales
Cited by:
Appeal from – Tameside and Glossop Acute Services NHS Trust v Thompstone and others CA 17-Jan-2008
The court set out the legal principles applying when making a Periodical Payments Order in an award of damages for serious personal injury. The periodical payments payable to the claimant in respect of his care costs should be calculated by . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 04 August 2021; Ref: scu.247984

Edward Wong Finance Co Ltd v Johnson Stokes and Master: PC 1984

(Hong Kong) The defendant’s solicitors completed a mortgage in ‘Hong Kong style’ rather than in the old fashioned English style. Completion in Hong Kong style provides for money to be paid over against an undertaking by the solicitors for the borrowers subsequently to hand over the executed documents. This allowed a dishonest solicitor for the borrower to abscond with an advance without providing the documents.
Held: Even though completion in Hong Kong style was almost universally adopted in Hong Kong and was in accordance with a body of professional opinion there, the defendant’s solicitors were liable for negligence because there was an obvious risk which could have been guarded against. Thus, the body of professional opinion, though almost universally held, was not reasonable or responsible. In medical negligence, in cases of diagnosis and treatment there are cases where, despite a body of professional opinion sanctioning the defendant’s conduct, the defendant can properly be held liable for negligence. Nevertheless, it will very seldom be right for a judge to reach the conclusion that views generally held by a competent medical expert are unreasonable.
Diplock, Elwyn-Jones, Roskill, Brandon of Oakbrook, Brightman LL
(1983) 80 LSG 3163, [1984] 2 WLR 1, [1983-84] ANZ Conv R 640, [1984] AC 296, [1983] UKPC 32
Bailii
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Patel and Another v Daybells (a Firm) CA 27-Jul-2001
Land was purchased and a resale negotiated before it was registered. An undertaking was accepted that the seller’s solicitor would discharge all charges. The purchasers sought to avoid completion by saying the Act required them to be registered . .
Cited – Calver v Westwood Veterinary Group CA 24-Nov-2000
The defendants appealed a finding of professional negligence in their handing of a case in which a mare had miscarried. It was claimed that he had failed to spot a retained placenta. The laminitis she then suffered (found caused by negligence) led . .
Cited – Bolitho v City and Hackney Health Authority HL 24-Jul-1997
The plaintiff suffered catastrophic brain damage as a result of cardiac arrest induced by respiratory failure as a child whilst at the defendant hospital. A doctor was summoned but failed to attend, and the child suffered cardiac arrest and brain . .
Cited – Lloyds TSB Bank Plc v Markandan and Uddin (A Firm) ChD 14-Oct-2010
The claimant sought damages saying that the defendant firm of solicitors had failed to deal properly with a conveyance having paid across the mortgage funds to a non-existent firm of solicitors and without obtaining the appropriate documents at all. . .
Cited – Cook v The Mortgage Business Plc CA 24-Jan-2012
cook_mbpCA2012
The land owners sought relief from possession orders made under mortgages given in equity release schemes: ‘If the purchaser raises all or part of the purchase price on mortgage, and then defaults, the issue arises whether the mortgagee’s right to . .
Cited – Thwaytes v Sotheby’s ChD 16-Jan-2015
The claimant had sold a painting through the defendant auctioneers. He sought damages after it was certified to be an original rather than copy Caravaggio painting, and worth very substantially more. . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 04 August 2021; Ref: scu.183812

Henderson v Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust: SC 30 Oct 2020

Where a claimant, during a serious psychotic episode, committed a criminal offence, which she would not have committed but for the defendant’s negligence, can she recover damages for the consequences of having committed the offence, including her subsequent loss of liberty?
The Court considered an invitation to make use of the Practice Statement: ‘As this court has recently emphasised, it will be ‘very circumspect before accepting an invitation to invoke the 1966 Practice Statement’: Knauer v Ministry of Justice [2016] AC 908, para 23. It is important not to undermine the role of precedent and the certainty which it promotes. Circumstances in which it may be appropriate to do so include where previous decisions ‘were generally thought to be impeding the proper development of the law or to have led to results which were unjust or contrary to public policy’ – per Lord Reid in R v National Insurance Comr, Ex p Hudson [1972] AC 944, 966. Even then the court needs to be satisfied that a departure from precedent ‘is the safe and appropriate way of remedying the injustice and developing the law’ – per Lord Scarman in R v Secretary of State for the Home Department, Ex p Khawaja [1984] AC 74, 106.’
Lord Reed (President), Lord Hodge (Deputy President), Lady Black, Lord Lloyd-Jones, Lady Arden, Lord Kitchin, Lord Hamblen
[2020] UKSC 43, [2021] PNLR 7, [2021] AC 563, [2021] 2 All ER 257, (2021) 177 BMLR 1, [2020] 3 WLR 1124, [2021] Med LR 26, [2020] WLR(D) 592, [2021] PIQR P7
Bailii, WLRD, Bailii Press Summary, Bailii Issues and Facts
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Secretary of State for Health and Another v Servier Laboratories Ltd and Others SC 2-Jul-2021
Economic tort of causing loss by unlawful means
The Court was asked whether the ‘dealing requirement’ is a constituent part of the tort of causing loss by unlawful means; whether a necessary element of the unlawful means tort is that the unlawful means should have affected the third party’s . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 02 August 2021; Ref: scu.655458

Agouman v Leigh Day (A Firm): QBD 16 Jun 2016

The defendant firm of solicitors had acted for the claimant and 30000 others in a claim for personal injuries from the leaking of a tanker. The claim was settled but before damages could be paid, another group obtained orders against the sums received. The result was that the claimant received nothing. She now claimed in professional negligence.
Andrew Smith J
[2016] EWHC 1324 (QB)
Bailii
England and Wales

Updated: 14 July 2021; Ref: scu.565796

Pegasus Management Holdings Sca and Another v Ernst and Young (A Firm) and Another: CA 12 Mar 2010

The claimants appealed against dismissal of their claim for damages for negligent tax advice they said had been given by the respondents.
Sir Mark Potter P FD
[2010] EWCA Civ 181, [2010] STC 1461, [2010] PNLR 23, [2010] BTC 398, [2010] 2 All ER (Comm) 191, [2010] STI 1366, [2010] 3 All ER 297
Bailii
England and Wales

Updated: 09 July 2021; Ref: scu.402617

Gravgaard v Aldridge and Brownlee (A Firm): CA 9 Dec 2004

After the court had sent its draft judgment to the parties, counsel on each side had written to the court making fresh submissions.
Held: Contentious matters should only be allowed to be re-opened in very limited circumstances once a draft judgment has been issued. In this case, the submissions would not make an alteration to the result of the appeal, though minor textual alterations would be imported.
May LJ, Arden LJ
[2004] EWCA Civ 1529, Times 02-Dec-2004
Bailii
Limitation Act 1980 14A
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Robinson v Fernsby, Scott-Kilvert CA 19-Dec-2003
The judge had drafted his judgment and sent the drafts to the parties for comment. He then received additional written representations from one party, from which he realised that he had made an error, and issued a corrected judgment which a . .

Cited by:
Cited – Hutchinson v Metropolitan Police Commissioner and Another QBD 27-Jul-2005
The claimant sought damages for assault by a probationary constable. The constable had been called to a drunken party for Sainsbury’s employees.
Held: The claimant had been assaulted. Miss Morgan had introduced herself as a police officer, had . .

These lists may be incomplete.
Updated: 04 July 2021; Ref: scu.220163

Meadows v Khan: QBD 23 Nov 2017

Claim for the additional costs of raising the claimant’s son, A, who suffered from both haemophilia and autism. It is admitted that, but for the defendant’s negligence, A would not have been born because his mother would have discovered during her pregnancy that he was afflicted by haemophilia and so would have undergone a termination. It is agreed that she can recover the additional costs associated with that condition. What is in dispute is whether she can also recover the additional costs associated with A’s autism. The defendant’s position is that such costs are outside the scope of her liability because the service she was providing was only in relation to the risk of haemophilia.
Held: The claim succeeded. The Court of Appeal has decided in Parkinson and Groom that recovery for the costs associated with a disability not directly linked to the negligence is fair where the disabled child would not have been born but for the negligence and where the disability arises out of the normal incidents of conception, intra-uterine development and birth. I can see no good reason to distinguish this case as a matter of principle or policy.
Yip J said: ‘Once it is established that, had the mother been properly advised she would not have wanted to continue with her pregnancy, should it matter why she would have wanted a termination? Why logically should there be a distinction between the parent who did not want any pregnancy and one who did not want this particular pregnancy? In each case, the effect of the doctor’s negligence was to remove the mother’s opportunity to terminate a pregnancy that she would not have wanted to continue. To draw a distinction on the basis of considering the underlying reason why a mother would have wanted to terminate her pregnancy seems unattractive, arbitrary and unfair.’
Yip J
[2017] EWHC 2990 (QB), [2017] WLR(D) 778, [2018] Med LR 161, [2018] PIQR Q4, [2018] 4 WLR 8
Bailii, WLRD
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – MacFarlane and Another v Tayside Health Board HL 21-Oct-1999
Child born after vasectomy – Damages Limited
Despite a vasectomy, Mr MacFarlane fathered a child, and he and his wife sought damages for the cost of care and otherwise of the child. He appealed a rejection of his claim.
Held: The doctor undertakes a duty of care in regard to the . .
Cited – Hardman v Amin QBD 2001
Henriques J said: ‘McFarlane does not affect the law so far as it relates to the wrongful birth of disabled children.’ . .
Cited – Groom v Selby CA 18-Oct-2001
The defendant negligently failed to discover the claimant’s pregnancy. A severely disabled child was born. The question was as to the responsibility for payment of excess costs of raising a severely disabled child, a claim for economic loss. The . .
Cited – Caparo Industries Plc v Dickman and others HL 8-Feb-1990
Limitation of Loss from Negligent Mis-statement
The plaintiffs sought damages from accountants for negligence. They had acquired shares in a target company and, relying upon the published and audited accounts which overstated the company’s earnings, they purchased further shares.
Held: The . .
Cited – South Australia Asset Management Corporation v York Montague Ltd etc HL 24-Jun-1996
Limits of Damages for Negligent Valuations
Damages for negligent valuations are limited to the foreseeable consequences of advice, and do not include losses arising from a general fall in values. Valuation is seldom an exact science, and within a band of figures valuers may differ without . .
Cited – Parkinson v St James and Seacroft University Hospital NHS Trust CA 11-Apr-2001
A mother had undergone a negligent sterilisation, and in due course she gave birth to a disabled child.
Held: The right to bodily integrity is the first and most important of the interests protected by the law of tort. The cases saying that . .
Cited – Rees v Darlington Memorial Hospital NHS Trust HL 16-Oct-2003
The claimant was disabled, and sought sterilisation because she feared the additional difficulties she would face as a mother. The sterilisation failed. She sought damages.
Held: The House having considered the issue in MacFarlane only . .
Cited – Chester v Afshar HL 14-Oct-2004
The claimant suffered back pain for which she required neurosurgery. The operation was associated with a 1-2% risk of the cauda equina syndrome, of which she was not warned. She went ahead with the surgery, and suffered that complication. The . .
Cited – BPE Solicitors and Another v Hughes-Holland (In Substitution for Gabriel) SC 22-Mar-2017
The court was asked what damages are recoverable in a case where (i) but for the negligence of a professional adviser his client would not have embarked on some course of action, but (ii) part or all of the loss which he suffered by doing so arose . .

Cited by:
Appeal from – Khan v Meadows CA 15-Feb-2019
Appeal from the judgment of Yip J who determined that the costs related to the autism of Adejuwon, the respondent’s son, following his birth may be properly recovered by her and assessed damages in the agreed sum of pounds 9,000,000. Adejuwon . .
At First Instance – Khan v Meadows SC 18-Jun-2021
‘ A woman approaches a general medical practice for testing to establish whether she is a carrier of a hereditary disease. Tests which are inappropriate to answer that question are arranged. A general medical practitioner when informing her of the . .

These lists may be incomplete.
Updated: 01 July 2021; Ref: scu.601106

Hamilton Jones v David and Snape (a Firm): ChD 19 Dec 2003

The claimant was represented by the respondent firm of solicitors in an action for custody of her children. Through their negligence the children had been removed from the country. She sought damages for the distress of losing her children.
Held: The head of damages was proper and recoverable.
Neuberger J
Gazette 29-Jan-2004, [2004] 1 WLR 924, [2004] 1 All ER 657
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Distinguished – F v Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council CA 1991
The local authority took children into care, reassuring the parents that they would be returned. They were not.
Held: There was no valid claim for damages for the distress arising from the loss of the company of a child. There was no cause of . .
Cited – Verderame v Commercial Union Assurance Co Plc CA 2-Apr-1992
The insurance brokers, acting to arrange insurance for a small private limited company did not owe a duty in tort to the directors of that company personally. Where an action was brought in a tort and in breach of contract, damages could not be . .
Cited – Addis v Gramophone Company Limited HL 26-Jul-1909
Mr Addis was wrongfully and contumeliously dismissed from his post as the defendant’s manager in Calcutta. He sought additional damages for the manner of his dismissal.
Held: It did not matter whether the claim was under wrongful dismissal. . .
Applied – Watts and Co v Morrow CA 30-Jul-1991
The plaintiff had bought a house on the faith of the defendant’s report that there were only limited defects requiring repair. In fact the defects were much more extensive. The defendant surveyor appealed against an award of damages after his . .
Applied – Farley v Skinner HL 11-Oct-2001
The claimant sought damages from the defendant surveyor. He had asked the defendant whether the house he was to buy was subject to aircraft noise. After re-assurance, he bought the house. The surveyor was wrong and negligent. A survey would not . .
Cited – Regina v Brentford Justices Ex parte Wong QBD 1981
The defendant had been involved in a traffic accident. Very shortly before the expiry of the six month time limit, the prosecutor issued a careless driving summons apparently in order to preserve the possibility of a prosecution without yet having . .

These lists may be incomplete.
Updated: 24 June 2021; Ref: scu.193438

Griffiths v The Secretary of State for Health: QBD 6 May 2015

The Claimant had a history of alcohol abuse. He was found unconscious at the foot of a flight of stairs after falling down. The ambulance crew mistook his condition, and the claimant now claimed in damages for his failed treatment in that he had not been immobilised.
Turner J
[2015] EWHC 1264 (QB)
Bailii
England and Wales

Updated: 22 June 2021; Ref: scu.546419

Dulson v Popovych: QBD 8 Jun 2021

Application by the Defendant pursuant to CPR 17.1(2) and PD 14 Paragraph 7 to resile from an admission of breach of duty, made in the Defence in this claim, to amend the Defence (to plead a denial inter alia to the allegations of breach of duty with respect to a 2 week wait referral); and to extend time for service of medical evidence.
HHJ Nigel Lickley QC sitting as a Deputy Judge of the High Court
[2021] EWHC 1515 (QB)
Bailii
England and Wales

Updated: 20 June 2021; Ref: scu.663355

Sciortino v Beaumont: CA 25 May 2021

The primary issue raised by this second appeal concerns the date when a cause of action in negligence accrues against a barrister who has advised on two separate occasions about the same or similar issues. Is there one single cause of action which accrues when the first negligent advice was given and acted upon (in which case, on the facts of this case, the claim would be statute-barred), or does a separate cause of action – albeit for lesser loss and damage – accrue when the second advice is given and acted upon (in which case the lesser claim here, based on that second advice, would not be statute-barred)?
Coulson LJ
[2021] EWCA Civ 786
Bailii
England and Wales

Updated: 20 June 2021; Ref: scu.662795

Manchester Building Society v Grant Thornton UK Llp: ComC 2 May 2018

claim for damages by a building society caused by the admitted negligence of its accountant.
Teare J
[2018] EWHC 963 (Comm), [2019] WLR(D) 49
Bailii, WLRD
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – South Australia Asset Management Corporation v York Montague Ltd etc HL 24-Jun-1996
Limits of Damages for Negligent Valuations
Damages for negligent valuations are limited to the foreseeable consequences of advice, and do not include losses arising from a general fall in values. Valuation is seldom an exact science, and within a band of figures valuers may differ without . .

Cited by:
Appeal from – Manchester Building Society v Grant Thornton UK Llp CA 30-Jan-2019
Liability of an auditor for losses incurred on long term interest rate swap agreements which were entered into in reliance upon negligent accounting advice and which were closed out at a loss when the negligent advice came to light. . .
At ComC – Manchester Building Society v Grant Thornton UK Llp SC 18-Jun-2021
. .

These lists may be incomplete.
Updated: 19 June 2021; Ref: scu.614943

Manchester Building Society v Grant Thornton UK Llp: CA 30 Jan 2019

Liability of an auditor for losses incurred on long term interest rate swap agreements which were entered into in reliance upon negligent accounting advice and which were closed out at a loss when the negligent advice came to light.
Lord Justice Hamblen
[2019] EWCA Civ 40, [2019] 4 All ER 90, [2019] 1 WLR 4610, [2019] PNLR 12
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – South Australia Asset Management Corporation v York Montague Ltd etc HL 24-Jun-1996
Limits of Damages for Negligent Valuations
Damages for negligent valuations are limited to the foreseeable consequences of advice, and do not include losses arising from a general fall in values. Valuation is seldom an exact science, and within a band of figures valuers may differ without . .
Appeal from – Manchester Building Society v Grant Thornton UK Llp ComC 2-May-2018
claim for damages by a building society caused by the admitted negligence of its accountant. . .

Cited by:
Appeal from – Manchester Building Society v Grant Thornton UK Llp SC 18-Jun-2021
. .

These lists may be incomplete.
Updated: 19 June 2021; Ref: scu.633090

Khan v Meadows: CA 15 Feb 2019

Appeal from the judgment of Yip J who determined that the costs related to the autism of Adejuwon, the respondent’s son, following his birth may be properly recovered by her and assessed damages in the agreed sum of pounds 9,000,000. Adejuwon suffers from both haemophilia and autism. The appellant admits that but for her negligence Adejuwon would not have been born because his mother would have discovered during her pregnancy that he was afflicted by haemophilia and so would have undergone a termination of the pregnancy. It is accepted by the appellant that the respondent is entitled to recover the additional costs associated with the condition of haemophilia. The issue at trial and on appeal is whether, as a matter of law, the appellant’s liability is limited to additional losses associated with Adejuwon’s haemophilia or whether she is liable for the additional losses associated with both his haemophilia and autism. Yip J granted permission to appeal.
[2019] EWCA Civ 152, [2019] PIQR Q3, [2019] 4 WLR 26, [2019] 2 All ER 607, (2019) 167 BMLR 62
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Meadows v Khan QBD 23-Nov-2017
Claim for the additional costs of raising the claimant’s son, Adejuwon, who suffers from both haemophilia and autism. It is admitted that, but for the defendant’s negligence, Adejuwon would not have been born because his mother would have discovered . .

Cited by:
At CA – Khan v Meadows SC 18-Jun-2021
‘ A woman approaches a general medical practice for testing to establish whether she is a carrier of a hereditary disease. Tests which are inappropriate to answer that question are arranged. A general medical practitioner when informing her of the . .

These lists may be incomplete.
Updated: 19 June 2021; Ref: scu.633441

FNCB Ltd v Barnet Devanney and Co Ltd: CA 1 Jul 1999

An insurance broker was asked to provide insurance to protect a mortgagee but did not arrange mortgage protection cover.
Held: He was in breach of his contract even though the law relating to such insurance was unsure. He was not entitled to try to resolve such issues, but was instead required to act in accordance with his contractual obligations.
Gazette 14-Jul-1999, Times 28-Sep-1999, [1999] EWCA Civ 1729
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – The Seashell of Lisson Grove Ltd and Others v Aviva Insurance Ltd and Others ComC 1-Nov-2011
The claimant’s fish restaurant had burned down. The court was asked to make a preliminary determination of issues on construction on insurance policy. The insured sought to evade what the insurer said were breaches of warranty, misrepresentations . .

These lists may be incomplete.
Updated: 14 June 2021; Ref: scu.80618

Purrunsing v A’Court and Co (A Firm) and Another: ChD 14 Apr 2016

The claimant had paid money for a property, but the seller was a fraudster and no money or title was recovered. The claimant sued both his conveyancers and the solicitors who had acted for the fraudster, in each case innocently. The defendants each sought relief under section 61 of the 1925 Act.
Held: The claim succeeded. The reasonableness test which was to be applied to a legal professional who parted with completion moneys without obtaining completion, was of necessity a high hurdle. Section 61 was to be applied in a manner which was consistent with the high expectation of a trustee discharging fiduciary obligations under the rules of equity.
The second defendant conveyancers had failed to discharge the burden of proving that it acted reasonably applying the test established by the case law referred to above and thus was not entitled to rely on s.61 of the Trustee Act 1925. Similarly, the first defendant solicitors had failed to discharge the burden resting on them to establish that they acted reasonably in the circumstances and thus they were not entitled to the benefit of s.61 of the Trustee Act 1925. The two firms were to bear the loss equally.
Pelling QC HHJ
[2016] EWHC 789 (Ch), [2016] WLR(D) 193, [2016] 4 WLR 81, [2016] WTLR 1027, [2016] 2 P and CR DG14, [2016] PNLR 26, [2016] Lloyd’s Rep FC 310
Bailii, WLRD
Trustee Act 1925 61, Money Laundering Regulations 2007, Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978 1
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Lloyds TSB Bank Plc v Markandan and Uddin (A Firm) CA 9-Feb-2012
The defendant solicitors appealed against judgment. They and the lenders had been subject to a mortgage fraud. Fraudsters had set up a false branch office of a firm of solicitors, and secured payment of a mortgage advance. . .
Cited – Santander UK Plc v RA Legal Solicitors CA 24-Feb-2014
. .
Cited – Davisons Solicitors (A Firm) v Nationwide Building Society CA 12-Dec-2012
. .
Cited – Target Holdings Ltd v Redferns (A Firm) and Another HL 21-Jul-1995
The defendant solicitors had acted for a purchaser, Crowngate, which had agreed to buy a property from a company called Mirage for andpound;775,000. Crowngate had arranged however that the property would first be passed through a chain of two . .
Cited – AIB Group (UK) Plc v Mark Redler and Co Solicitors SC 5-Nov-2014
Bank not to recover more than its losses
The court was asked as to the remedy available to the appellant bank against the respondent, a firm of solicitors, for breach of the solicitors’ custodial duties in respect of money entrusted to them for the purpose of completing a loan which was to . .

Cited by:
Main Judgment – Purrunsing v A’Court and Co (A Firm) and Another ChD 1-Jul-2016
Post judgment hearing of the remaining costs issues . .
Cited – P and P Property Ltd v Owen White and Catlin Llp and Another ChD 30-Sep-2016
Solicitors’ liability for client’s fraud
The claimant had purchased a property, but having discovered the sale to be fraudulent, he now claimed against the solicitors and estate agents acting in the sale.
Held: The claim failed. Neither the solicitor nor the estate agent could be . .

These lists may be incomplete.
Updated: 11 June 2021; Ref: scu.562028

Walkin v South Manchester Health Authority: CA 3 Jul 1995

A claim for damages for an unwanted pregnancy occurring after a failed sterilisation. The plaintiff claimed damages for her economic losses. She issued only four years after the birth.
Held: The limitation period ran from the date of conception. Such a claim fell to be treated akin to an action for personal injuries.
Times 03-Jul-1995, [1995] 1 WLR 1543
Limitation Act 1980 11(1)
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Farraj and Another v King’s Healthcare NHS Trust and Another QBD 26-May-2006
The claimants sought damages after the birth of their child with a severe hereditary disease which they said the defendant hospital had failed to diagnose after testing for that disease. The hospital sought a contribution from the company CSL who . .
Cited – Yearworth and others v North Bristol NHS Trust CA 4-Feb-2009
The defendant hospital had custody of sperm samples given by the claimants in the course of fertility treatment. The samples were effectively destroyed when the fridge malfunctioned. Each claimant was undergoing chemotherapy which would prevent them . .

These lists may be incomplete.
Updated: 09 June 2021; Ref: scu.90256

Martin v Triggs Turner Bartons (A Firm) and Others: ChD 31 Jul 2009

The claimant sought damages alleging professional negligence against her solicitors for herself and her late husband’s estate. She said that the will should have allowed advances of capital for all but pounds 100,000 of the estate, rather than the first pounds 100,000 only.
Held: The solicitors had not implemented the deceased’s instructions, and the claimant had suffered a loss accordingly. However, even so, there would have been a discretion in the trustees to make the advance of capital. That figure would be assessed at an eventual 50% of the amount available. Similarly the costs of the rectification proceedings should be allowed for.
Floyd J
[2009] EWHC 1920 (Ch), [2010] PNLR 3, [2009] WTLR 1339
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – DW Moore and Co Ltd v Ferrier CA 1988
moore_ferrierCA1988
A solicitor was instructed to prepare an agreement providing for the introduction of a new working director into an insurance broking business carried on by a company. His instructions called for the new director to enter into a restrictive covenant . .
Cited – White and Another v Jones and Another HL 16-Feb-1995
Will Drafter liable in Negligence to Beneficiary
A solicitor drawing a will may be liable in negligence to a potential beneficiary, having unduly delayed in the drawing of the will. The Hedley Byrne principle was ‘founded upon an assumption of responsibility.’ Obligations may occasionally arise . .
Cited – Allied Maples Group Ltd v Simmons and Simmons CA 12-May-1995
Lost chance claim – not mere speculative claim
Solicitors failed to advise the plaintiffs sufficiently in a property transaction. A warranty against liability for a former tenant’s obligations under leases had not been obtained. The trial judge held that, on a balance of probabilities, there was . .
Cited – Worby, Worby and Worby v Rosser CA 28-May-1999
Three potential beneficiaries sought payment from a solicitor of the costs of resisting the grant of probate to a will, saying that he had owed them a duty of care to ensure that the testator did not execute a later will in circumstances in which he . .
Cited – Cancer Research Campaign v Ernest Brown 1998
An executor does not usually owe a duty to advise a beneficiary in connection with the affairs of the beneficiary. Tax avoidance is not an idea that runs naturally or should be attributed to ordinary people or to legal executives in a small firm of . .

These lists may be incomplete.
Updated: 02 June 2021; Ref: scu.368640

Cann v Wilson: HL 1888

A surveyor was held to have a duty of care to the lender when he was engaged by the purchaser of a property.
References: (1888) 39 CH D 39
Jurisdiction: England and Wales
This case is cited by:

  • Cited – Commissioners of Customs and Excise v Barclays Bank Plc ComC 3-Feb-2004
    The claimant had obtained orders against two companies who banked with the respondent. Asset freezing orders were served on the bank, but within a short time the customer used the bank’s Faxpay national service to transfer substantial sums outside . .
    ([2004] EWHC 122 (Comm Court), , [2004] 1 WLR 2027)

These lists may be incomplete.
Last Update: 27 November 2020; Ref: scu.192727

Farraj and Another v King’s Healthcare NHS Trust (KCH) and Another: CA 13 Nov 2009

The claimant parents each carried a gene making any child they bore liable to suffer a serious condition. On a pregnancy the mother’s blood was sent for testing to the defendants who sent it on to the second defendants. The condition was missed, despite doubts about the adequate of the sample, and the pregnancy continued. The child was born with the disease. The court had found negligence and apportioned the damages.
Held: The court had fallen into error in not accepting the expert descriptions of normal good practice. The testing hospital was able to assume the adequacy of the sample unless informed of this by the testing agency. The hospital laboratory carried none of the liability.
Dyson LJ said that any departure from the general rule as to the liability of an employer for the acts of others had to be justified on policy grounds. If the position were to be otherwise, there was a danger that the general rule would become the exception rather than the rule, and that is not the law.
References: [2009] EWCA Civ 1203, (2010) 11 BMLR 131, [2010] PIQR P7, [2010] Med LR 1
Links: Bailii
Judges: Sedley, Dyson, Smith LJJ
Jurisdiction: England and Wales
This case cites:

  • Cited – Wilsons and Clyde Coal Co Ltd v English HL 19-Jul-1937 ([1938] AC 57, , [1937] UKHL 2, [1937] 3 All ER 628)
    The employer had entrusted the task of organising a safe system of work to an employee as a result of whose negligence another employee was injured. The employer could not have been held liable for its own negligence, since it had taken all . .
  • Cited – Kondis v State Transport Authority 16-Oct-1984 (, [1984] HCA 61, (1984) 154 CLR 672, (1984) 55 ALR 225, (1984) 58 ALJR 531, (1984) Aust Torts Reports 80-311)
    (High Court of Australia) Mason J discussed the concept of the personal duty which Lord Wright expounded in Wilson and said that it made it impossible to draw a convincing distinction between the delegation of performance of the employer’s duty to . .
  • Cited – D and F Estates v Church Commissioners for England HL 14-Jul-1988 (, [1988] UKHL 4, [1989] AC 177)
    The House considered the liability of main contractors on a construction site for the negligence of it sub-contractors.
    Lord Bridge said: ‘It is trite law that the employer of an independent contractor is, in general, not liable for the . .
  • Cited – Gold v Essex County Council CA 1942 ([1942] 2 KB 293)
    The hospital was held accountable for an injury caused by negligence of an employee radiographer. The main issue was whether the authority could be vicariously liable even for employees in cases where their employment called for the exercise of . .
  • Cited – Cassidy v Ministry of Health CA 1951 ([1951] 2 KB 343)
    The court considered the liability in negligence of the respondent for the negligence of doctors employed by it.
    Held: The Ministry was liable for the negligence of doctors who were employed by it on contracts of service.
    Denning LJ . .
  • Cited – A v Ministry of Defence; Re A (A Child) CA 7-May-2004 (Times 17-May-04, Gazette 03-Jun-04, , [2004] EWCA Civ 641, [2005] QB 183)
    The wife of a British Army soldier serving in Germany delivered a premature baby, ‘A’, with a German obstetrician in a German hospital. A suffered brain damage in the birth as a result of the obstetrician’s negligence. The mother claimed against the . .
  • Cited – X (Minors) v Bedfordshire County Council; M (A Minor) and Another v Newham London Borough Council; Etc HL 29-Jun-1995 (Independent 30-Jun-95, Times 30-Jun-95, [1995] 2 AC 633, , [1995] UKHL 9, [1995] 2 FLR 276, [1995] 3 All ER 353, [1995] 3 WLR 152, [1995] 3 FCR 337, (1995) 7 Admin LR 705, 94 LGR 313, [1995] Fam Law 537, [1995] 3 FCR 337)
    Damages were to be awarded against a Local Authority for breach of statutory duty in a care case only if the statute was clear that damages were capable of being awarded. in the ordinary case a breach of statutory duty does not, by itself, give rise . .
  • Cited – Priestley v Fowler 1837 (, [1837] EngR 202, (1837) 3 M and W 1, (1837) 150 ER 1030)
    Priestley was a butcher’s man who was injured when a van overloaded by fellow employees collapsed, injuring him. His lawsuit was founded on the principle of a master’s vicarious liability for his servant’s negligence. . .
  • Cited – Bartonshill Coal Co v Reid HL 1858 ((1858) 3 Macqu 265)
    A workman had been killed through the overturning of the miners’ cage, the engineman having failed to stop the ascending cage at the platform and having allowed it to be sent with great force up against the scaffolding. An allegation was made that . .
  • Cited – Ellis v Wallsend District Hospital 1989 ([1990] 2 Med LR 103, (1989) 17 NSWLR 553)
    (Court of Appeal of New South Wales) Samuels JA discussed the circumstances in which a non-delegable duty of care arises: ‘It arises from a relationship which combines the dependence of A upon the reasonable care, skill and judgment of B with the . .
  • Cited – Roe v Ministry of Health CA 1954 ([1954] 2 QB 66, , [1954] 2 All ER 131, [1954] 2 WLR 915, [1954] EWCA Civ 7)
    The plaintiff complained that he had developed a spastic paraplegia following a lumbar puncture.
    Held: An inference of negligence was rebutted. However the hospital authority was held to be vicariously liable for the acts or omissions of the . .
  • Cited – Robertson v Nottingham Health Authority CA 1987 ([1987] 8 Med LR 1)
    Brooke LJ held that ‘the only rule that this court has to apply in the present case is that if a patient is injured by reason of a negligent breakdown in the systems for communicating material information to the clinicians responsible for her care, . .
  • Cited – Wilsher v Essex Area Health Authority CA 1986 (, [1986] 3 All ER 801, [1987] 2 WLR 425)
    A prematurely-born baby was the subject of certain medical procedures, in the course of which a breach of duty occurred. to ensure that the correct amount was administered it was necessary to insert a catheter into an umbilical artery so that his . .
  • Cited – Joseph Smith (Pauper) v Charles Baker and Sons HL 21-Jul-1891 (, [1891] UKHL 2, [1891] AC 325)
    . .
  • Cited – Mitchil v Alestree 1726 (, [1726] EngR 590, (1726) 1 Vent 295, (1726) 86 ER 190 (B))
    In an action upon the case brought against the defendant, for that he did ride an horse into a place called Lincoln’s Inn Fields, (a place much frequented by the King’s subjects, and unapt for such purposes) for the breaking and taming of him, and . .

This case is cited by:

  • Cited – Woodland v The Swimming Teachers’ Association and Others QBD 17-Oct-2011 (, [2011] EWHC 2631 (QB), [2012] PIQR P3, [2012] ELR 76)
    The court was asked as to the vicarious or other liability of a school where a pupil suffered injury at a swimming lesson with a non-employee during school time, and in particular whether it had a non-delegable duty to ensure the welfare of children . .
  • Cited – Woodland v Essex County Council CA 9-Mar-2012 (, [2012] EWCA Civ 239, [2013] 3 WLR 853, [2012] ELR 327, [2012] Med LR 419, [2012] PIQR P12, [2012] BLGR 879)
    The claimant had been injured in a swimming pool during a lesson. The lesson was conducted by outside independent contractors. The claimant appealed against a finding that his argument that they had a non-delegable duty of care was bound to fail. . .

These lists may be incomplete.
Last Update: 25 October 2020; Ref: scu.377910

Sahib Foods Limited (In Liquidation) v Paskin Kyriakides Sands (A Firm): CA 19 Dec 2003

References: [2003] EWCA Civ 1832, [2003] EWCA Civ 1920
Links: Bailii, Bailii
Judges: Lord Justice Clarke Lord Justice Potter Lord Justice Ward
Jurisdiction: England and Wales
This case cites:

These lists may be incomplete.
Last Update: 25 October 2020; Ref: scu.189917

Altus Group (UK) Ltd v Baker Tilly Tax and Advisory Services Llp and Another: ChD 7 Jan 2015

The claimant claims damages for professional negligence on the part of the defendants, who carry on the business of accountants with expertise in the field of taxation, in failing to give advice that would have enabled the claimant to implement a restructuring proposal with a view to mitigating its tax liabilities. The defendants admitted the negligence but denied its causation of loss.
References: [2015] EWHC 12 (Ch), [2015] STC 788, [2015] STI 158
Links: Bailii
Judges: Keyser QC HHJ
Jurisdiction: England and Wales

Last Update: 23 September 2020; Ref: scu.540532

Carr-Glynn v Frearsons (a Firm): CA 29 Jul 1998

The solicitors had failed to advise the testator to issue a notice of severance of a joint tenancy, with the result that the house passed outside the will.
Held: The plaintiff did have a remedy. ‘The duty owed by the solicitors to the testator is a duty to take care that effect his given to his testamentary intentions . . The duty owed by the solicitors to the specific legatees is not a duty to take care to ensure that the specific legatee receives his legacy. It, also, is a duty to take care to ensure that effect is given to the testator’s testamentary intentions. The loss from which the specific legatee is to be saved harmless is the loss from which he will suffer if the effect is not given to the testator’s testamentary intentions.’
References: [1998] EWCA Civ 1325, [1999] Ch 326, [1998] 4 All ER 225
Links: Bailii
Judges: Chadwick LJ
Jurisdiction: England and Wales
This case is cited by:

  • Cited – Humblestone v Martin Tolhurst Partnership (A Firm) ChD 5-Feb-2004 ([2004] EWHC 151 (Ch), , Times 27-Feb-04, Gazette 04-Mar-04)
    The solicitors sent a will to the client for execution, but failed to notice on its return that it had not been properly executed, the signature not being that of the client.
    Held: The solicitors were under a duty to ensure that the will would . .
  • Cited – Worby, Worby and Worby v Rosser CA 28-May-1999 (Times 09-Jun-99, Gazette 16-Jun-99, , [1999] EWCA Civ 1520, [2000] PNLR 140)
    Three potential beneficiaries sought payment from a solicitor of the costs of resisting the grant of probate to a will, saying that he had owed them a duty of care to ensure that the testator did not execute a later will in circumstances in which he . .
  • Distinguished – Walker v Geo H Medlicott and Son (a Firm) CA 19-Nov-1998 (Times 25-Nov-98, , [1998] EWCA Civ 1806, [1999] 1 All ER, [1999] 1 WLR 727, [1999] PNLR 531)
    The claimant said that the defendant solicitor had negligently failed to include in the will a specific devise of property in his favour.
    Held: A beneficiary who alleged negligent failure of a will draftsman to include a gift to him in a will . .

These lists may be incomplete.
Last Update: 22 September 2020; Ref: scu.144804