The claimants purchased a house relying upon a survey by the defendants. Although the defendants reported long standing movement of the property, the defendants failed to report that to be saleable, a long investigation would be required, reducing the value until the result was available.
Held: The starting point for measuring damages was the difference in value between its assumed good condition, and the condition reported. That was subject to the overriding need to put the claimant back into the position he would have been but for the negligence. Hindsight was admissible in calculating the loss.
Judges:
Jonathan Gaunt QC
Citations:
Gazette 23-Jan-2003, [2003] EWHC 475 (Ch)
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Philips v Ward CA 1956
The Plaintiff had relied on a negligent survey to purchase a substantial Elizabethan property and land. The report did not mention that the timbers of the house were badly affected by death watch beetle and worm so that the only course left to him . .
Cited – Livingstone v Rawyards Coal Co HL 13-Feb-1880
Damages or removal of coal under land
User damages were awarded for the unauthorised removal of coal from beneath the appellant’s land, even though the site was too small for the appellant to have mined the coal himself. The appellant was also awarded damages for the damage done to the . .
Cited – Bwllfa and Merthyr Dare Steam Collieries (1891) Ltd v Pontypridd Waterworks Co HL 1903
A coalmine owner claimed statutory compensation against a water undertaking which had, under its statutory authority, prevented him mining his coal over a period during which the price of coal had risen. The House was asked whether the coal should . .
Cited – Kennedy v K B Van Emden and Co; Jordan v Gershon Young Finer and Green and Similar CA 27-Mar-1996
A solicitor failed in 1983 to advise a purchaser of the fact that premium she was paying on purchasing a leasehold flat was unlawful under the Act, and would be unrecoverable on the sale. Before trial however, in 1989 the law changed and the premium . .
Cited – Charles v Hugh James Jones and Jenkins (A Firm) CA 22-Dec-1999
Where a personal injury claimant’s claim had been lost because of the solicitor’s negligence, the notional time for assessment of damages was the time at which a trial might properly have been expected to have been held. This did not however . .
Cited – Morgan v Perry QBD 1973
The defendant surveyors had failed to notice cracks and other defects in a property. The plaintiff relied on their report and purchased, and now sought damages.
Held: The defendants had failed to exercise the reasonable care and skill of a . .
Cited by:
Cited – Golden Strait Corporation v Nippon Yusen Kubishka Kaisha (‘The Golden Victory’) HL 28-Mar-2007
The claimant sought damages for repudiation of a charterparty. The charterpary had been intended to continue until 2005. The charterer repudiated the contract and that repudiation was accepted, but before the arbitrator could set his award, the Iraq . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Damages, Professional Negligence
Updated: 10 June 2022; Ref: scu.178848
