Claim for personal injuries loss and damage brought on behalf of the estate of the late John Raggett deceased, pursuant to the provisions of the 1934 Act.
Sir Alistair MacDuff
[2016] EWHC 1604 (QB)
Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1934
England and Wales
Updated: 19 June 2022; Ref: scu.567068
The claimant alleged negligence in the carrying out of plastic surgery.
Garnham J
[2016] EWHC 1215 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 19 June 2022; Ref: scu.564929
DS acting by his mother and litigation friend sought damages for the injury and loss said to have been caused by the negligence of Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospital Trust’s midwifery and medical staff in the management of part of DS’s mother’s labour at Scunthorpe General Hospital. According to Myles Textbook for Midwives placental abruption is an accidental occurrence of haemorrhage that occurs in 0.49-1.8% of all pregnancies. Severe separation of the placenta is an acute obstetric emergency.
Cheema-Grubb DBE J
[2016] EWHC 1246 (QB)
Congenital Disabilities (Civil Liability) Act 1976
England and Wales
Updated: 19 June 2022; Ref: scu.564923
Turner J
[2016] EWHC 1334 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 19 June 2022; Ref: scu.565183
Application to strike out claim.
Edis J
[2016] EWHC 1834 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 18 June 2022; Ref: scu.567642
The court considered a claim by a mother who had witnessed her 22 year old daughter motionless in the recovery unit after failing to emerge from anaesthesia following a routine operation to remove a wisdom tooth. Four events said to be shocking were relied upon:
(a) Seeing Catherine motionless in the recovery unit and touching her hand;
(b) Seeing her in the intensive care unit with a variety of tubes present;
(c) Seeing her in the chapel of rest bleeding from her ears with her neck and chest area bruised as if she had been battered;
(d) Being informed that the brain would be kept for examination.
Held: The judge was to decide whether Mrs Ward had suffered PTSD. He said this of the evidence of the Defendants’ consultant psychiatrist: ‘Dr Reveley’s opinion as to PTSD is founded upon a wide experience of reporting upon incidents which without question met the relevant criteria for PTSD – Kings Cross, Hillsborough and other such major disasters. Her insistence that a necessary criterion must be a clearly shocking event of a particularly horrific nature seemed to me to accord with the diagnostic criteria produced in evidence. An event outside the range of human experience, sadly, does not it seems to me encompass the death of a loved one in hospital unless also accompanied by circumstances which were wholly exceptional in some way so as to shock or horrify. Mrs Ward’s own descriptions of these incidents did not strike me as shocking at the time in that sense, although undoubtedly they were distressing. To describe an event as shocking in common parlance is to use an epithet so devalued that it can embrace a very wide range of circumstances. But the sense in which it is used in the diagnostic criteria for PTSD must carry more than that colloquial meaning.’
Hawkesworth QC HHJ
[2004] EWHC 2106 (QB)
England and Wales
Cited – Liverpool Women’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust v Ronayne CA 17-Jun-2015
The respondent was an experienced ambulance driver. His wife underwent emergency treatment at the appellant’s hospital. He had claimed as a secondary victim for the distress he suffered witnessing her suffering.
Held: The hospital’s appeal . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 18 June 2022; Ref: scu.567372
Application on behalf of the claimant under CPR 25.7 for an interim payment in respect of his claim for damages against the defendant arising out of the defendant’s negligent failure properly to treat him during the neonatal period and in particular in failing to treat his hypoglycaemia appropriately.
Reddihough HHJ
[2016] EWHC 1610 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 18 June 2022; Ref: scu.567067
A brokers’ liability for his bad advice was continuous. He had a continuing obligation to correct earlier bad advice.
Independent 22-Jul-1993, Times 18-Aug-1993
England and Wales
Updated: 17 June 2022; Ref: scu.86962
[2001] EWCA Civ 1800
England and Wales
Updated: 13 June 2022; Ref: scu.201517
Application for leave to appeal from rejection of case of alleged professional negligence.
Robert Walker LJ
[2001] EWCA Civ 1259
England and Wales
Updated: 13 June 2022; Ref: scu.201250
Appeal from a decision of Buckley J given on 20th February 1998 dismissing the claimant’s claim for professional negligence against solicitors and counsel who advised her and her parents in relation to a road accident.
Schiemann, Kay LJJ, Sir Murray Stuart-Smith
[2001] EWCA Civ 934
England and Wales
Updated: 13 June 2022; Ref: scu.201137
The claimant appealed from the strike out of his various claim as against his former solicitors.
Mummery LJ, Sumner J
[2001] EWCA Civ 773
England and Wales
Updated: 11 June 2022; Ref: scu.201057
The claimant had at first been convicted of a rape, but acquitted after a second appeal. He now sued the barrister who had represented him at the trial alleging negligence in (inter alia) failing to present fully the alibi evidence.
Held: Defence counsel should have reconsidered the decision whether or not to seek an alibi direction. Nevertheless, he could not sue his barrister for the choices made in the trial, the decision had been made as a tactical one within the trial: ‘Neither counsel nor the Judge had dwelt on or ‘compartmentalised’ the topic of alibi. All had addressed the jury on the basis that the issue was identification. Viewed objectively, the alibi was probably not water-tight and for the Defendant to form the view that the less said on the topic the better and the last thing she wanted was for attention to be focussed on possible lies in that respect by the defendant, let alone his parents, was entirely reasonable. Her view was that there were valid points to be made on the identification evidence and therein lay Mr Popat’s best chance of an acquittal. Put more legalistically; the Defendant’s view of the matter and her decision cannot, in my view, fairly be described as one that no competent counsel could share.’
Buckley J
Times 05-Jul-2004, [2004] EWHC 741 (QB)
England and Wales
Application for leave to appeal – Popat v Barnes CA 10-Jun-2004
The claimant’s allegation of professional negligence against his barrister for the conduct of his criminal trial had been dismissed. He now sought leave to appeal. The decision had been made not to alert the judge to a deficiency in the alibi . .
Appeal from – Popat v Barnes CA 10-Jun-2004
The claimant’s allegation of professional negligence against his barrister for the conduct of his criminal trial had been dismissed. He now sought leave to appeal. The decision had been made not to alert the judge to a deficiency in the alibi . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 11 June 2022; Ref: scu.198721
The parties were negotiating for an under-lease. The lease provided for rent to increase along with rent reviews under the head lease. The solicitors failed to ascertain the rent under the head lease, to advise his client to have the property valued, or to explain the unusual clause. The rent was reviewd to an uneconomic rent, and the client sued his solicitor for negligence. He appealed dismissal of his claim.
Held: The solicitor was negligent. In exercising reasonable professional judgement he should have alerted his client to the consequences of the unusual clause. As to damages, the court was not restricted to the diminution in value. The plaintiff was entitled also to the costs of surrender and possibly to the cost of a lease whch would be saleable.
[1987] 1 All ER 289
England and Wales
Cited – Neighbour v Barker CA 1992
Purchasers had set out to buy the property without having a survey, relying upon representations as to its condition, later found to be fraudulent, from the vendor. The condition was discovered only after exchange of contracts. The purchasers’ . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 11 June 2022; Ref: scu.219184
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 would now be recoverable.
Held: It was wrong to assess damages mechanistically, and though the usual rule would be to test the damages at the date of loss, it was right to include an assessment at the date of trial if that gave a better view of the actual loss.
Nourse LJ said: ‘the damages are to be assessed in the real world. Compensation is a reward for real, not hypothetical, loss. It is not to be made an occasion for recovery in respect of a loss which might have been, but has not been, suffered.’
Lord Justice Nourse, Lord Justice Ward and Lord Justice Schiemann
Gazette 01-May-1996, Times 05-Apr-1996, [1997] 2 EGLR 137
England and Wales
Cited – County Personnel (Employment Agency) Ltd v Alan R Pulver and Co (a Firm) CA 1987
The claimant sought damages after his negligent solicitors had saddled him with a ruinous underlease. They had had to buy themselves out of the lease. The court considered the date at which damages were to be calculated.
Held: The starting . .
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 – McKinnon and another v E Survey Ltd (formerly known as GA Valuation and Survey Ltd) ChD 14-Jan-2003
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 . .
Cited – Bacciottini and Another v Gotelee and Goldsmith (A Firm) CA 18-Mar-2016
A property subject to a planning condition was purchased by the appellant under the advice of the respondent, who failed to notify him of the existence of a planning condition. The judge had awarded the claimant pounds 250 being the cost of the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 10 June 2022; Ref: scu.82731
The Honourable Mr Justice Gross
[2004] EWHC 780 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 10 June 2022; Ref: scu.195974
The Honourable Mr Justice David Richards
[2003] EWHC 3159 (Ch)
England and Wales
Updated: 08 June 2022; Ref: scu.189916
The claimant had instructed the defendant firm of solicitors in civil proceedings. At a later time, she was prosecuted convicted and sentenced for criminal acts. She claimed that the defendant solicitor who had come to believe that she did not have mental capacity, should have passed on that view to the other firm, which may have affected the outcome of her criminal trial.
Held: The claim failed. The solicitor had no duty to inform the other solcitor of his view. The second solicitor could be assumed toi be able to make such an assessment himself, and it would have been a breach of his duty of confidence to the claimant.
Sir Andrew Morritt, VC
Times 10-Dec-2003, [2003] EWHC 3334 (Ch), [2007] Lloyd’s Rep PN 10
England and Wales
See Also – Marsh v Sofaer and Another ChD 25-May-2006
. .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 08 June 2022; Ref: scu.188701
The ‘Somatra’ was lost at sea. The insurance claim had been refused on the basis that the ship was unseaworthy. The owners came to instruct the appellant solicitors to represent them in the insurance claim. Having lost confidence in the solicitors, they had to change solicitors shortly before the trial, and said they were unable to claim the 75% of their claim they would have settled for at trial. The solicitors appealed against an award of the difference between that sum and the sum actually received.
Held: The appeal failed. There had been a clear chance of settling at the figure claimed.
The judge was entitled to make the award of costs he had ordered because of his findings as to the behaviour of the solicitor-partner involved.
Schiemann, Tuckey, Longmore LJJ
[2003] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 855, [2003] EWCA Civ 1474
England and Wales
Cited – Assicurazioni Generali Spa v Arab Insurance Group (BSC) CA 13-Nov-2002
Rehearing/Review – Little Difference on Appeal
The appellant asked the Court to reverse a decision on the facts reached in the lower court.
Held: The appeal failed (Majority decision). The court’s approach should be the same whether the case was dealt with as a rehearing or as a review. . .
Cited – ABCI v Banque Franco-Tunisienne and others CA 27-Feb-2003
‘The thinking behind the CPR was that they would speak for themselves and that courts would not have to refer to an ever increasing body of authority in order to apply them.’ . .
Cited – Home Office v Lownds (Practice Note) CA 21-Mar-2002
The respondent had been ordered to pay costs of over pounds 16,000 in an action for clinical negligence where the final award was only pounds 4,000. The Secretary of State appealed claiming that the costs were disproportionate.
Held: In such . .
Cited – Somatra Ltd v Sinclair Roche and Temperley CA 28-Mar-2003
. .
Main Judgment – Sinclair Roche and Temperley (A Firm) v Somatra Ltd (Documents) CA 23-Oct-2003
The court refused an application for further documents to be disclosed, the application being made on the day before the hearing of the appeal. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 08 June 2022; Ref: scu.187061
Contract – professional negligence – duty of care – general consulting engineers – advice to NHS trust whether negligent – expert evidence – admissibility of evidence in the same profession with specialist professional expertise.
His Honour Judge John Toulmin Cmg Qc
[1999] EWHC Technology 273
England and Wales
Updated: 08 June 2022; Ref: scu.185886
The Honourable Mr Justice Tugendhat
[2003] EWHC 1786 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 07 June 2022; Ref: scu.185239
There had been a dispute between shareholders, and the defendant was called upon to value the company. He issued a tender for valuers to value the properties. Complaint was made that the tender was negligent in its description of the basis for valuation.
Held: Part of the skills of a chartered accountant, especially one who is willing to undertake a valuation of shares, is the valuation of shares. The properties should not have been valued on a portfolio basis. Too great a deduction for contingent tax was allowed. A deduction for non-listed status was based on an error of principle, but was within the permissible range. He was not negligent in making a deduction to reflect a 75 per cent probability that the options would be exercised. The permissible range is between 50 and 75 per cent. The mean is 62.5 per cent. The valuation remained within the permissible range. Negligence would not be shown if the figure advised was within the range of permissible figures, even if it was reached negligently. Where a figure was made up of several others, a brackert was to calculated for each, not just for those involving negligence. No loss was shown and the action dismissed.
The Honourable Mr Justice Lewison
Gazette 11-Sep-2003, HC 02 C00884, [2003] EWHC 1574 (Ch), Times 16-Jul-2003
England and Wales
Cited – Singer and Friedlander Ltd v Wood 1977
Valuers acting competently and professionally may reach widely varying conclusions as to value. There is a permissible margin of error, the ‘bracket’. What can properly be expected from a competent valuer using reasonable care and skill is that his . .
Cited – Mount Banking Corporation Ltd v Brian Cooper and Co QBD 1992
The plaintiff submitted that where the final valuation figure is within the Bolam principle, an acceptable figure, albeit towards the top end, but where none the less the valuer has erred materially in reaching that figure, the plaintiff can succeed . .
Cited – Zubaida v Hargreaves CA 1995
In the general run of actions for negligence against professional men it is not enough to show that another expert would have given a different answer. The issue is whether the defendant acted in accordance with practices which are regarded as . .
Cited – Craneheath Securities v York Montague CA 1996
When testing whether a valuation was negligent, it would not be enough for the plaintiff to show that there have been errors at some stage of the valuation unless they can also show that the final valuation was wrong. would not be enough for the . .
Cited – Lion Nathan Limited and others v C C Bottlers Limited and others PC 14-May-1996
(New Zealand) A company was sold with a warranty that the sales figures would meet projected earnings. The purchaser successfully complained after the event that the figures were false and misleading. They appealed an order increasing the damages on . .
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 – Legal and General Mortgage Services v HPC Professional Services 1997
The claimant submitted that he was entitled to succeed in his claim gthat a valuation was negligent, either by showing that the valuer’s final figure was outside the bracket within which any competent valuer using reasonable skill and care could . .
Cited – Merivale Moore Plc; Merivale Moore Construction Limited v Strutt and Parker (a Firm) CA 22-Apr-1999
An agent valuing a commercial property and estimating the return to be obtained without qualification, was responsible in damages where the clients would not have proceeded on properly qualified advice. The process of valuation does not admit of . .
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 – Curry’s Group Plc v Martin QBD 13-Oct-1999
The valuer valued a lease for a rent review clause, after advice, on the basis that the rent stated was to be a headline rent. The claim was dismissed because a valuer acting in such a situation was not substantially different from one undertaking a . .
Cited – Arab Bank Plc v John D Wood Commercial Ltd (In Liquidation) and others CA 25-Nov-1999
Having once recovered damages against a valuer for a negligent survey, there was nothing to stop a lender recovering also under a policy of insurance under a mortgage indemnity guarantee, and so the lender was not required to give credit for monies . .
Cited – Sansom and Another v Metcalfe Hambleton and Co CA 17-Dec-1997
The court warned against finding a professional to have been negligent on the evidence of an expert who was not a member of the same profession. A structural survey was prepared by a chartered surveyor. Expert evidence for the plaintiff was given, . .
Cited – Whiteoak v Walker ChD 1988
The articles of association of a private company provided for shares to be valued by the auditor. The plaintiff transferred shares at a price fixed by the auditor, and subsequently alleged that the valuation was negligently made. One of the issues . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 07 June 2022; Ref: scu.184170
Negligent survey allegation
[2002] EWHC 482 (TCC)
England and Wales
Updated: 07 June 2022; Ref: scu.178964
The claimant had been victim to a substantial fraud. The defendant solicitors had been an innocent tool of the fraud. The claimant sought damages alleging professional negligece.
Lord Justice Chadwick Lord Justice Ward Lady Justice Arden
[2002] EWCA Civ 1788
England and Wales
Updated: 07 June 2022; Ref: scu.178816
The court was asked: ‘What has to be proved by the claimant in a case where the negligence of his solicitor has consisted of the failure to give him proper advice, in order to establish a sufficient causal link between the solicitor’s negligence and the loss which he has sustained and thus entitle him to substantial damages?’
Held: Sir Christopher Slade said: ‘It is by now trite law that it does not suffice for a claimant who seeks to recover substantial damages arising out of his solicitors’ failure to give him proper advice as to the risks of a proposed transaction to show that such failure occurred and that he suffered loss under the transaction. In such a case, it cannot be presumed that the negligent solicitor caused the loss. The claimant has to prove a connection, sometimes called a ‘causal link’, between the negligence and the loss which justifies making the solicitor pay substantial damages. Simple logic requires that, to show such causal link, he must first satisfy the court as to what action, if any, he would have taken to avoid the loss if proper advice had been given. If he fails to satisfy the court on this point, he can recover no more than nominal damages. Even if he satisfies the court that, in the events which happened, the loss would have been avoided if relevant advice had been given, the court will still have to decide whether the loss suffered was in fact caused by the failure to give such advice.’
Mummery, Latham LJJ, Sir Christopher Slade
[2002] EWCA Civ 593, [2002] Lloyds Reports PN 449
England and Wales
Cited – Orientfield Holdings Ltd v Bird and Bird Llp ChD 26-Jun-2015
The c;aimant alleged breach of contract and or professional negligence by the defendant solicitors when acting for it in the purchase of land. Contracts had been exchnged but on the discovery of proposed development nearby, they had failed to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 06 June 2022; Ref: scu.171244
The respondent firm acted on behalf of the claimant’s companies in land transactions. An option had been taken to purchase land, and he instructed the defendants to exercise it. The landowner claimed the notice to exercise the option was invalidly served. By the time the issue was resolved the land had again fallen in value. The respondents argued that the losses incurred by the claimant personally rather than by his company’s were the result of his business decisions. The respondents also argued that they owed any duties to their company client rather than the claimant in person. In this case because of the origin and nature of the original instructions such a duty did exist. However the claimant failed to establish that several heads of losses did flow from the negligence of the defendants.
The Honourable Mr Justice Hart
[2002] EWHC 776 (Ch)
England and Wales
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 – 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 – Galoo Ltd and Others v Bright Grahame Murray CA 21-Dec-1993
It is for the Court to decide whether the breach of duty was the cause of a loss or simply the occasion for it by the application of common sense. A breach of contract, to found recovery, must be shown to have been ‘an ‘effective’ or ‘dominant’ . .
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 – Lee v Sheard CA 1956
The negligence of a car driver resulted in an injury to the plaintiff who was one of two directors and shareholders of a limited company and did outside work of buying and selling linen goods for it. As a consequence of the accident the plaintiff . .
See Also – Johnson v Gore Wood and Co (A Firm) QBD 20-Feb-2002
The claimant alleged negligence by the defendant solicitors. . .
See Also – 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 . .
See Also – William John Henry Johnson v Gore Wood and Co CA 3-Dec-2003
. .
See Also – William John Henry Johnson v Gore Wood and Co CA 27-Jan-2004
The defendant had made a substantial payment into court in protracted proceedings.
Held: The comparison between the payment in and the eventual amount of damages awarded should be assessed on the basis of the damages calculated as at the date . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 06 June 2022; Ref: scu.171258
Henry, Potter, Judge LJJ
[2002] EWCA Civ 353, [2002] Lloyds Law Rep PN 342
England and Wales
Updated: 06 June 2022; Ref: scu.170079
The Council went above and beyond its statutory duty to maintain a list of the streets maintainable at public expense when responding to a specific enquiry about certain roadways.
Held: When responding to the enquiry, the council was aware of the identified individual purchaser.
The Vice-Chancellor, Lord Justice Buxton, And, Lady Justice Arden
[2001] EWCA Civ 1744, [2001] 49 EGCS 116, [2002] PNLR 18, [2002] 1 EGLR 137, [2001] NPC 167
England and Wales
Updated: 04 June 2022; Ref: scu.166853
A valuer was not negligent for following a solicitor’s advice as to the basis for his calculation of an appropriate rent when this was in turn based upon the need to follow a CA case.
Times 25-Nov-1997
England and Wales
Updated: 04 June 2022; Ref: scu.83053
Peter Gibson, Arden LJJ, Collins J
[2001] EWCA Civ 19, [2001] Lloyds Rep PN 308, (2001) 17 Const LJ 430, [2001] NPC 15
England and Wales
Updated: 31 May 2022; Ref: scu.147399
The defendant architects appealed against a finding of negligence.
Held: The appeal was allowed.
Nourse, Ward, Sedley LJJ
[2000] EWCA Civ 211
England and Wales
Updated: 31 May 2022; Ref: scu.147244
Dispute about the amount of damages to be awarded against surveyors who made a negligent overvaluation of a house for mortgage purposes on which the purchasers also relied. The surveyors expressed the opinion that the value of the house was in the region of andpound;90,000, whereas its actual value was andpound;65,000. The purchasers say that the house was uninhabitable and, further, that they were unable to resell it.
Nourse, Ward,Mantell LJJ
[1999] 1 WLR 1792, [1998] EWCA Civ 1734
England and Wales
Updated: 30 May 2022; Ref: scu.145213
The solicitor, acting in a land purchase transaction for his lay client and the plaintiff, had unwittingly misled the claimant by telling the claimant that the purchasers were providing the balance of the purchase price themselves without recourse to further borrowing when he knew that they were using an overdraft to obtain further funding. The plaintiff claimed in breach of trust.
Held: A claim for damages for a solicitor’s failure to disclose the existence of a 2nd mortgage must show that damage flowed from the failure alleged.
Millett LJ said: ‘A fiduciary is someone who has undertaken to act for or on behalf of another in a particular matter in circumstances which give rise to a relationship of trust and confidence. The distinguishing obligation of a fiduciary is the obligation of loyalty. The principal is entitled to the single-minded loyalty of his fiduciary. This core liability has several facets. A fiduciary must act in good faith; he must not make a profit out of his trust; he must not place himself in a position where his duty and his interest may conflict; he may not act for his own benefit or the benefit of a third person without the informed consent of his principal. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list, but it is sufficient to indicate the nature of fiduciary obligations. They are the defining characteristics of the fiduciary.’
He is not subject to fiduciary obligations because he is a fiduciary; it is because he is subject to them that he is a fiduciary: ‘A fiduciary who acts for two principals with potentially conflicting interests without the informed consent of both is in breach of the obligation of undivided loyalty; he puts himself in a position where his duty to one principal may conflict with his duty to another . . This is sometimes described as ‘the double employment rule.” and
‘Finally, the fiduciary must take care not to find himself in a position where there is an actual conflict of duty so that he cannot fulfil his obligations to one principal without failing in his obligations to the other . . If he does, he may have no alternative but to cease to act for at least one and preferably both. The fact that he cannot fulfil his obligations to one principal without being in breach of his obligations to the other will not absolve him from liability.’
As to breach of the duty: ‘Breach of fiduciary obligation, therefore, connotes disloyalty or infidelity. Mere incompetence is not enough. A servant who loyally does his incompetent best for his master is not unfaithful and is not guilty of a breach of fiduciary duty.’
If the trustee has benefited from the breach, the court will order him to account for it on the application of the beneficiary. Millett LJ described such relief as ‘primarily restitutionary or restorative rather than compensatory’.
Millett LJ
Times 02-Aug-1996, [1996] EWCA Civ 533, [1998] Ch 1, [1997] 2 WLR 436, [1996] 4 All ER 698
England and Wales
Cited – Birmingham Midshires Building Society v Infields (A Firm) TCC 20-May-1999
The defendant solicitors had acted for the lenders and borrower in a mortgage transaction. The claimant sought repayment of the entire loan, alleging breach of fiduciary duty, in having preferred the interests of one client over those of another. . .
Cited – Arklow Investments Ltd and Another v Maclean and Others PC 1-Dec-1999
PC (New Zealand) Land was offered for sale. A potential buyer, the appellant was approached by a merchant bank with a proposal for finance. When he sought finance elsewhere, a company associated with the bank . .
Cited – DEG-Deutsche Investitions und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH v Koshy and Other (No 3); Gwembe Valley Development Co Ltd (in receivership) v Same (No 3) CA 28-Jul-2003
The company sought to recover damages from a director who had acted dishonestly, by concealing a financial interest in a different company which had made loans to the claimant company. He replied that the claim was out of time. At first instance the . .
Cited – The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry v Goldberg, Mcavoy ChD 26-Nov-2003
The Secretary of State sought a disqualification order. The director argued that one shoul not be made in the absence of some breach of legal duty, some dishonesty should be shown.
Held: The answer was a mixture of fact and law. A breach of . .
Cited – Marks and Spencer plc v Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (A Firm) ChD 2-Jun-2004
The claimant sought an injunction preventing the respondent form of solicitors acting for a client in a bid for the claimant, saying that the firm was continuing to act for it, and that a conflict of interest arose.
Held: Though the . .
Cited – Marks and Spencer Group Plc and Another v Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer CA 3-Jun-2004
The defendant firm of solicitors sought leave to appeal against an injunction requiring them not to act for a client in making a bid to take over the business of the claimant, a former client of the firm.
Held: Leave was refused. The appeal . .
Cited – Newgate Stud Company, Newgate Stud Farm Llc v Penfold, Penfold Bloodstock Limited ChD 21-Dec-2004
The claimants sought damages from the defendant. He had been employed to manage their horse-racing activities, and it was alleged that he had made secret profits. The defendant denied any dishonesty, saying all matters were known to the deceased . .
Cited – Hilton v Barker Booth and Eastwood HL 3-Feb-2005
The claimant had instructed the defendant solicitors to act for him, where he was to contract with another client of the same solicitor in a land development. The solicitor failed to disclose that the other client had convictions for dishonesty, and . .
Cited – Ultraframe (UK) Ltd v Fielding and others ChD 27-Jul-2005
The parties had engaged in a bitter 95 day trial in which allegations of forgery, theft, false accounting, blackmail and arson. A company owning patents and other rights had become insolvent, and the real concern was the destination and ownership of . .
Cited – Ratiu, Karmel, Regent House Properties Ltd v Conway CA 22-Nov-2005
The claimant sought damages for defamation. The defendant through their company had accused him acting in such a way as to allow a conflict of interest to arise. They said that he had been invited to act on a proposed purchase but had used the . .
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 – Barnes and Another v Black Horse Ltd QBD 31-May-2011
The claimants sought repayment by the bank of sums paid to them for Payment Protection Insurance policies sold to them in connection with loans made by the bank. The Bank now resisted an application for leave to amend the particulars of the . .
Cited – Cook v The Mortgage Business Plc CA 24-Jan-2012
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 – Portman Building Society v Hamlyn Taylor Neck (a Firm) CA 22-Apr-1998
The mortgage advance had been against an express requirement that the client use the property as his private residence. After the client defaulted, the appellant lender discovered that the solicitors acting for themselves and the lay client had . .
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 – Leeds and Holbeck Building Society v Arthur and Cole ChD 2001
A claim for breach of fiduciary duty by a solicitor as against his lender client, required that it be found that the solicitor ‘did not disclose matters which he admittedly ought to have done to the claimant, intentionally and consciously, knowing . .
Cited – FHR European Ventures Llp and Others v Cedar Capital Partners Llc SC 16-Jul-2014
Approprietary remedy against Fraudulent Agent
The Court was asked whether a bribe or secret commission received by an agent is held by the agent on trust for his principal, or whether the principal merely has a claim for equitable compensation in a sum equal to the value of the bribe or . .
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 – Halton International Inc (Holding) and Another v Guernroy Ltd ChD 9-Sep-2005
Parties had entered into a shareholders’ agreement as to voting arrengemets within a company. Thay disputed whether votes had been used in reach of that agreement, particularly as to the issue of new shares and their allotment, but the court now . .
Cited – Lehtimaki and Others v Cooper SC 29-Jul-2020
Charitable Company- Directors’ Status and Duties
A married couple set up a charitable foundation to assist children in developing countries. When the marriage failed an attempt was made to establish a second foundation with funds from the first, as part of W leaving the Trust. Court approval was . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 29 May 2022; Ref: scu.140400
The test of professional negligence is the standard of the ordinary skilled man exercising and professing to have that special skill. Lord Scarman said: ‘a doctor who professes to exercise a special skill must exercise the ordinary skill must exercise the ordinary skill of his specialty. Differences of opinion and practice exist, and will always exist, in the medical as in other professions. There is seldom any one answer exclusive of all others to problems of professional judgment. A court may prefer one body of opinion to another: but that is no basis for conclusion of negligence’.
As to evidence of what constitutes evidence of professional standards, Lord Scarman said: ‘A judge’s ‘preference’ for one body of distinguished professional opinion to another also professionally distinguished is not sufficient to establish negligence in a practitioner whose actions have received the seal of approval of those whose opinions, truthfully expressed, honestly held, were not preferred. If this was the real reason for the judge’s finding, he erred in law even though elsewhere in his judgment he stated the law correctly. For in the realm of diagnosis and treatment negligence is not established by preferring one respectable body of professional opinion to another. Failure to exercise the ordinary skill of a doctor (in the appropriate speciality, if he be a specialist) is necessary.’
Lord Scarman said: ‘A case which is based on an allegation that a fully considered decision of two consultants in the field of their special skill was negligent clearly presents certain difficulties of proof. It is not enough to show that there is a body of competent professional opinion which considers that theirs was a wrong decision, if there also exists a body of professional opinion, equally competent, which supports the decision as reasonable in the circumstances. It is not enough to show that subsequent events show that the operation need never have been performed, if at the time the decision to operate was taken it was reasonable in the sense that a responsible body of medical opinion would have accepted it as proper.’
Lord Scarman
[1985] 1 WLR 685, [1985] 1 All ER 635
England and Wales
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 . .
Adopted – Hunter v Hanley 4-Feb-1955
The pursuer had been injured when the hypodermic needle being used by the defender doctor broke in use. The pursuer said that the direction by the judge as to accepted practice for the use of such needles.
Held: The court considered the . .
Cited – Joyce v Yeomans CA 1981
The court discussed how an appellate court should defer to the assessment of a judge at first instance of the value of an expert witness.
Brandon LJ said: ‘even when dealing with expert witnesses, a trial judge has an advantage over an . .
Cited – Mirza v Birmingham Health Authority QBD 31-Jul-2001
The claimant had undergone heart surgery as an infant in 1976, and claimed damages for professional negligence. The procedure involved a dangerous procedure, a resection of coarctation. As a consequence, the Claimant suffered a number of problems . .
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 – 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 – Penney and Others v East Kent Health Authority CA 16-Nov-1999
A cervical smear screener could be liable in negligence if he failed to spot obvious abnormalities in a test result which indicated that further investigation was required. To say this is not to say that such screening tests were expected to achieve . .
Cited – Maguire v North West Strategic Health Authority QBD 16-Nov-2012
The claimant General Practitioner doctor had been found liable for professional negligence leading to very severe injury. He now sought a contribution from the Authority, saying that their similar mistake within a few days had similarly caused the . .
Cited – Montgomery v Lanarkshire Health Board SC 11-Mar-2015
Change in Doctors’ Information Obligations
The pursuer claimed that her obstetrician had been negligent, after her son suffered severe injury at birth. The baby faced a birth with shoulder dystocia – the inability of the shoulders to pass through the pelvis. The consultant considered that a . .
Cited – Sidaway v Board of Governors of the Bethlem Royal Hospital and the Maudsley Hospital HL 21-Feb-1985
Explanation of Medical Risks essential
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 . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 28 May 2022; Ref: scu.183056
The claimant, when in mid pregnancy, had a routine abdominal ultra-sound scan. The sonographer could not visualise the foetal bladder, and referred her Leeds General Infirmary. The record of the scan taken there two days later showed the bladder noted under the heading ‘well visualised and appear normal’. This scan had been taken by a specialist registrar. A second ultra-sound scan a month later conducted jointly by the same registrar and the consultant noted that ‘the bladder is seen within the pelvis’. Two further ultra sound scans were taken in which no abnormality of the bladder was noted. In fact the child was born with a condition known as cloacal-exstrophy, a condition in which there is serious deformity resulting in the development of substantial parts of the abdominal content outside the abdominal wall. In that condition there was no bladder to be visualised. the duty of care owed at the Leeds General Infirmary demanded a high standard of care and skill because the scan was ‘a scan with a focus’. He concluded that ‘there is a heavy burden on Leeds when seeking to reconcile its incorrect visualisations with the exercise of all reasonable care and skill.’
Held: The claimant had established her case.
[2004] EWHC 1392 (QB), [2004] Lloyd’s Rep Med 537
England and Wales
Cited – Lillywhite and Another v University College London Hospitals’ NHS Trust CA 7-Dec-2005
The claimant sought damages for severe injuries suffered by their child at birth, and now appealed finding that the doctor had not been negligent. The allegation was simply that the injury could not have occurred but for negligence in the defendant. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 25 May 2022; Ref: scu.236718
[2000] EWCA Civ 318
England and Wales
Updated: 23 May 2022; Ref: scu.135645
[2007] EWHC 1882 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 21 May 2022; Ref: scu.261903
S P Grenfell J
[2007] EWHC 644 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 21 May 2022; Ref: scu.261899
The appellant wanted to open a pizza restaurant. He and his partners acquired a company for the purpose, which was to take a lease of premises. They sought advice from the defendants who, they said, failed to advise them of the need to be aware of dilapidations and the risks of entering into possession before the lease was formally executed.
Held: The appeal was dismissed. When the claimant executed the guarantee he knew already of the risk of liability for dilapidations. The limitation period runs from when damage arises, in this case from the giving of the negligent advice to sign a guarantee. The requested addition of the new party did not arise from an earlier mistake but from the assignment to the plaintiff. The amendment should not be allowed.
Aldous LJ said: ‘Negligent advice which results in a person giving a security by way of a charge over property or a guarantee can cause damage even before the surety is called in or before the person comes to have to honour the guarantee. That can be demonstrated by taking a case which arose in argument, when a company guarantees the loans of another company. That guarantee would have to be disclosed in the company’s accounts as it would be a liability affecting the value of the shares. If the guarantee was entered into upon negligent advice, then the loans might well have to be paid and the guarantee honoured. Thus, the potential liability of the guarantor would be greater with consequent diminution of the value of the company. ‘
Schiemann LJ said: ‘A guarantor cannot be sued on the guarantee by the creditor until there has been default by the principal debtor. It does not follow that the guarantor has not got a right of action in tort against a solicitor who allegedly negligently advised him to enter into the guarantee prior to that time. He may prefer to wait and see whether he is in fact called upon to pay but, as it seems to me, he can sue his solicitor earlier. If he does the trial judge must do what he can to assess the chance of the surety being called upon to pay under the guarantee. If this is significant, then the judge will assess the damage on the basis of the degree of probability of the surety being held liable to pay a particular sum. ‘
Hirst LJ, Aldous LJ, Schiemann LJ
Times 14-Feb-1997, [1997] EWCA Civ 951
England and Wales
Cited – Welsh Development Agency v Redpath Dorman Long Ltd CA 4-Apr-1994
A new claim was not deemed to have been made until the pleading was actually amended for limitation purposes, and should not be allowed after the limitation period had expired. The date of the application for leave to amend was not at issue. The . .
Cited – Lep Air Services v Rolloswin Investments Ltd; Moschi v LEP Air Services HL 1973
The obligation of a guarantor under a contract ‘is not an obligation himself to pay a sum of money to the creditor, but an obligation to see to it that another person, the debtor, does something.’ When a repudiatory breach is accepted by the injured . .
Cited – DW Moore and Co Ltd v Ferrier CA 1988
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 – Forster v Outred and Co CA 1981
A mother signed a mortgage deed charging her property to H as security for a loan to her son. She claimed the solicitor had been negligent in his advice. The solicitor replied that the claim was out of time. The loss accrued not when demand for . .
Cited – Baker v Ollard and Bentley CA 12-May-1982
The plaintiff and a Mr and Mrs Bodman agreed to buy a house. The plaintiff intended to live on the first floor and the Bodmans on the ground floor. The solicitor should have advised them to convey the freehold into their joint names and then to . .
Cited – Hancock Shipping Limited v Kowaski Heavy Industries CA 1992
Leave was sought by the plaintiffs to amend their points of claim in circumstances where it was common ground that the amendments would introduce new causes of action which, if brought in new proceedings, would have been statute-barred. Held . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 20 May 2022; Ref: scu.89686
The solicitor innocently accepted instructions to sell a property, but was misled as to the identity of the wife – one of the joint owners. Unknown to him, however, Mr Penn had forged his wife’s signature on the contract documents. He was sued by the lender to the buyer (who had also been involved in the fraud).
Held: The Solicitor acting for vendor was to be held liable as having given a warranty that he was instructed by the true owners.
Waller LJ having said that the solicitor thought he was acting for the wife as well as the husband and, in all the pre-contract correspondence, negotiations and completion, held himself out as duly authorised by the husband and wife jointly, held that the building society had to establish that a promise had been made to it by the agent, to the effect that the agent had the authority of the principal, and that it had provided consideration by acting in reliance on that promise. He concluded that all the necessary ingredients were present for establishing a warranty by the solicitor in favour of the building society that the solicitor had the authority of Mrs Penn.
Staughton, Waite, Waller LJJ
Times 24-Apr-1997, [1997] 3 All ER 470, [1997] EWCA Civ 1416, [1997] 1 WLR 1356, [1997] PNLR 607
England and Wales
Appeal from – Penn v Bristol and West Building Society and Others ChD 19-Jun-1995
Solicitors acting for a vendor were liable to the buyers’ mortgagees for breach of warranty of authority for vendor. The solicitor was negligent in not having verified the instructions from the wife who was the joint tenant. . .
Appealed to – Penn v Bristol and West Building Society and Others ChD 19-Jun-1995
Solicitors acting for a vendor were liable to the buyers’ mortgagees for breach of warranty of authority for vendor. The solicitor was negligent in not having verified the instructions from the wife who was the joint tenant. . .
Cited – A and J Fabrications (Batley) Ltd v Grant Thornton and Others ChD 1998
The plaintiffs, the majority creditors of a company in liquidation, alleged that they had agreed with Grant Thornton, the defendants, to support the appointment of one of the firm’s partners or employees as liquidator of the company, with a view to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 19 May 2022; Ref: scu.84653
The respondent accountants had certified accounts for a firm of solicitors whose dishonest defaults later lead to substantial claims on the compensation fund set up by the claimants.
Held: The Law Society who collected funds from the profession at large and would have to pay out compensation were clearly owed a duty of care by the respondents.
Times 04-Jul-2000, Gazette 27-Jul-2000, [2000] 1 All ER 515, [2000] 1 WLR 1921, A3/2000/0175, [2000] EWCA Civ 5563
England and Wales
Appeal from – Law Society v KPMG Peat Marwick and Others ChD 3-Nov-1999
An accountant, auditing a firm of solicitors, and providing a certificate to the Law Society knew that the Society and its compensation fund would rely upon that certificate and so owed it a duty of care. A negligently given certificate could lead . .
Cited – Law Society v Sephton and Co (a Firm) and Others HL 10-May-2006
A firm of solicitors had a member involved in a substantial fraud. The defendant firm of accountants certified the firm’s accounts. There were later many calls upon the compensation fund operated by the claimants, who sought recovery in turn from . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 19 May 2022; Ref: scu.82963
The valuer valued a lease for a rent review clause, after advice, on the basis that the rent stated was to be a headline rent. The claim was dismissed because a valuer acting in such a situation was not substantially different from one undertaking a valuation. Valuation remained an uncertain art particularly where different bases of valuation might be appropriate. Possible incentives payable by the landlord were relevant considerations. The submission made on its behalf was that it was sufficient to show that the defendant was negligent in his methodology in a way that was adverse to it, and that damages are recoverable even though the rent determined was one that a reasonably competent surveyor could have determined. That submission was firmly based on Lion Nathan. The claimant submitted that Merivale Moore was decided per incuriam, on the ground that Lion Nathan did not appear to have been cited.
Held: It was inconceivable that Lion Nathan overlooked Merivale. The doctrine of per incuriam does not apply to decisions of the Privy Council. He therefore held that he was bound to follow the ratio of Merivale Moore.
Mr Michael Harvey QC
Gazette 13-Oct-1999, [1999] 3 EGLR 165
Cited – Lion Nathan Limited and others v C C Bottlers Limited and others PC 14-May-1996
(New Zealand) A company was sold with a warranty that the sales figures would meet projected earnings. The purchaser successfully complained after the event that the figures were false and misleading. They appealed an order increasing the damages on . .
Cited – Merivale Moore Plc; Merivale Moore Construction Limited v Strutt and Parker (a Firm) CA 22-Apr-1999
An agent valuing a commercial property and estimating the return to be obtained without qualification, was responsible in damages where the clients would not have proceeded on properly qualified advice. The process of valuation does not admit of . .
Cited – Goldstein v Levy Gee ( A Firm) ChD 1-Jul-2003
There had been a dispute between shareholders, and the defendant was called upon to value the company. He issued a tender for valuers to value the properties. Complaint was made that the tender was negligent in its description of the basis for . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 19 May 2022; Ref: scu.79716
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 with the need to avoid re-litigation of issues settled by courts, case law dictates some exemptions, but these must be limited and any doubt resolved against the practitioner.
Lord Bingham of Cornhill LCJ, Mottitt LJ, Waller LJ
Times 18-Dec-1998, [1998] EWCA Civ 1943, [1999] 3 WLR 873, [1998] EWCA Civ 3539, [1999] 1 FLR 536, [1999] PNLR 374, [1999] 2 FCR 193, [1998] NPC 162, [1999] Fam Law 215, [1999] Lloyd’s Rep PN 47
England and Wales
Appeal from – 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 – Worldwide Corporation Limited v Marconi Communications Ltd (Formerly Gpt Limited) and Gpt (Middle East) Limited CA 21-Jun-1999
Counsel, giving assurances in open court on behalf of his client, bound that client. This applied even though counsel might have been negligent, and / or might, in turn, be immune from suit. Courts must be able to rely, and act, upon assurances . .
Cited – Worldwide Corporation Limited v Marconi Communications Limited (Formerly GPT Limited) and GPT (Middle East) Limited 22-Jun-1999
Application for leave to appeal. Original leading counsel had consented to the abandonment of parts of the claim. New leading counsel now sought to revive them.
Held: The claim had little prospect of success. Leave to appeal refused. . .
Cited – Xydhias v Xydhias CA 21-Dec-1998
The principles of contract law are of little use when looking at the course of negotiations in divorce ancillary proceedings. In the case of a dispute the court must use its own discretion to determine whether agreement had been reached. Thorpe LJ . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 17 May 2022; Ref: scu.77881
Auditors have no separate duty of care to investors for whom a company they audited held funds on trust.
Independent 27-Sep-1994
Updated: 17 May 2022; Ref: scu.77811
The solicitor employers of a solicitor who had acted under powers of attorney in transactions between the attorney and the principal which later proved fraudulent were negligent. The Land Registry was liable for the balance of damage suffered. Mance J: ‘.. the answer to this problem seems to lie in recognising that, for dishonest assistance, the defendant’s dishonesty must have been towards the plaintiff in relation to property held or potentially held on trust or constructive trust, rather than the introduction of a separate criterion of knowledge of any such trust.’
Mance J
Gazette 03-Feb-1999, [1999] CLC 1469,
Cited – Ultraframe (UK) Ltd v Fielding and others ChD 27-Jul-2005
The parties had engaged in a bitter 95 day trial in which allegations of forgery, theft, false accounting, blackmail and arson. A company owning patents and other rights had become insolvent, and the real concern was the destination and ownership of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 17 May 2022; Ref: scu.77768
The issue of proceedings within only 12 days of six year limitation period followed by an 18 month delay was not under the present rules sufficient to warrant a strike out, since insufficient prejudice shown, but would probably under the new rules.
Gazette 17-Feb-1999
England and Wales
Updated: 17 May 2022; Ref: scu.77750
A Lloyds Managing agent owed a duty of care to both present and future names who might come to rely upon his advice and actions.
Times 08-Mar-1995
Updated: 17 May 2022; Ref: scu.77694
(1987) Con LR 25
Cited – Finecard International Ltd (T/A the Ninja Corporation) v Urquhart Dyke and Lord (A Firm) and Another ChD 10-Nov-2005
The defendants sought an interim ruling that they were not the cause of the claimant’s losses. They had acted as patent agents to license to exploit the claimant’s patent in the UK. They alleged that the failure to complete the registration of the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 17 May 2022; Ref: scu.234848
A military doctor has exemption under Crown Immunity, from liability from his failure to diagnose and treat ocular cancer properly, and the exemption applied even though the medical condition pre-existed the treatment. The cause of action lay in the failure to diagnose.
Times 08-Jun-1998
Appeal from – Derry v Ministry of Defence CA 18-Mar-1999
Where an army doctor was accused of failing to diagnose a serviceman’s ocular cancer, the negligence which caused the consequent injury was caused by the delay in a correct diagnosis, and the treatment fell within the scope of Crown Immunity. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 15 May 2022; Ref: scu.79928
The plaintiff brought proceedings against the defendant health authority for negligence and breach of duty of care on the ground that, if he had been properly treated, he would not have killed his victim and would not have been convicted of the offence of manslaughter. He alleged that the consequence of the defendant’s breach of duty was that he would be detained for longer than he otherwise would have been under section 3 MHA 1983 and that he was unlikely to regain his liberty for many years. His case was that his damages were caused by or directly related to his criminal sentence. The defendant applied for an order striking out the plaintiff’s claim on the ground that the claim was based substantially, if not entirely, upon the plaintiff’s own illegal act.
Held: The strike out was refused. A claimant may make a claim for self inflicted harm if that had been induced by the failure to provide treatment for his mental health.
Times 27-Dec-1996
England and Wales
Appeal from – Clunis (By his Next Friend Prince) v Camden and Islington Health Authority CA 5-Dec-1997
The plaintiff had killed someone and, as a result, been convicted of manslaughter and ordered to be detained in a secure hospital when subject to after-care under section 117 of the 1983 Act. He sought damages from the health authority on the basis . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 15 May 2022; Ref: scu.79233
Garnham J
[2016] EWHC 1214 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 15 May 2022; Ref: scu.564701
Where professional adviser gave assistance to another making representation he had no liability to the representee where that person had no reason to know of his contribution and so did not rely upon his professional reputation
Times 09-Jul-1998
England and Wales
Updated: 15 May 2022; Ref: scu.77606
Carr DBE J
[2016] EWHC 1248 (TCC)
England and Wales
Updated: 15 May 2022; Ref: scu.565558
Judge Richard Seymour QC
[2009] EWHC 1099 (QB)
England and Wales
Appeal from – Mason v Richard Freeman and Co (A Firm) CA 25-Mar-2010
The claimant appealed against dismissal of his claim for damages against his former solicitors. He had set out to purchase an apartment for a former partner, with assistance from a friend and a mortgage, signing a home-drafted trust document. Two of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.406515
A request to give details of mining activities within the vicinity of a property had no meaning save from the purpose of its use. Nearby shafts or adits which posed no threat to the stability of the property had been properly omitted from report.
Gazette 25-Nov-1998
Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.83028
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 preclude the admission of, for example, medical evidence which only became available after that date.
Held: The recorder erred. Mr Watkins had lost a claim under the Scheme of some value and the Recorder should have proceeded to assess its value on a loss of opportunity basis. I would therefore dismiss the appeal and remit the matter for assessment of the value of the loss of the opportunity to pursue the services claim.
Times 22-Dec-1999, [2000] 1 WLR 1278
England and Wales
Cited – McKinnon and another v E Survey Ltd (formerly known as GA Valuation and Survey Ltd) ChD 14-Jan-2003
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 . .
Cited – Hibbert Pownall and Newton (A Firm) v Whitehead and Another CA 4-Apr-2008
The defendant solicitors had been engaged to pursue a claim for damages for injury arising on the birth of the claimant. They had been instructed by the mother, but she then died, and the claim was compromised. The solicitors now appealed against a . .
Cited – Edwards v Hugh James Ford Simey Solicitors SC 20-Nov-2019
The claimant sought damages saying that the defendant solicitors had failed to secure the incremental award of compensation under the vibration white finger scheme. The central issue was whether evidence which only became available later, but which . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 09 May 2022; Ref: scu.78983
Appeal against dismissal of claim against the claimant’s former solicitors. Negligence was found, but no loss was proved in his personal injury claim. He had claimed a settlement at an undervalue of his claim of Vibration White Finger. The judge at trial had found him an unreliable witness as to the extent of his injuries.
Held: Whilst the court reversed the trial judge as to causation, they approved the valuation of damages suffered.
Gloster VP CA, McFarlane LJJ, Sir Stephen Tomlinson
[2017] EWCA Civ 314, [2017] PNLR 27
England and Wales
At CA – Perry v Raleys Solicitors SC 13-Feb-2019
Veracity of a witness is for the court hearing him
The claimant, a retired miner, had sued his former solicitors, alleging professional negligence in the settlement of his claim for Vibration White Finger damages under the government approved scheme for compensation for such injuries. At trial, the . .
Cited – Edwards v Hugh James Ford Simey Solicitors SC 20-Nov-2019
The claimant sought damages saying that the defendant solicitors had failed to secure the incremental award of compensation under the vibration white finger scheme. The central issue was whether evidence which only became available later, but which . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 09 May 2022; Ref: scu.582096
The new Civil Procedure Rules were ultra vires and invalid insofar as they purported to remove any right of a solicitor’s client to assert his right of confidence as against his solicitor. The solicitor was therefore unable in this case to defend himself against a wasted costs order, but the court could allow for the refusal of the client to waive his privilege.
Toulson J said: ‘Article 6 gives every person a right to a fair trial, but I do not accept that it follows as a general proposition that this gives a right to interfere with another person’s right to legal confidentiality. If that were generally so, the right to legal confidentiality recognised by the court would be useless, since its very purpose is to enable a person to communicate with his lawyer secure in the knowledge that such communications cannot be used without his consent to further another person’s cause. In the absence of a general right under Article 6 to make use of another person’s confidential communications with his lawyer, I do not see how solicitors have a particular right to do so under that Article for the purpose of defending a wasted costs application.’
Toulson J
Times 12-Aug-1999, Gazette 11-Aug-1999, [1999] EWHC 832 (Comm), [1999] Lloyds Rep PN 919, [1999] 2 Costs LR 10, [2000] 1 WLR 272, [1999] 3 All ER 673, [2000] UKHRR 273, [1999] PNLR 852, [2000] HRLR 54, [1999] CPLR 425
Civil Procedure Act 1997, Civil Procedure Rules 1998 No 1312
England and Wales
Cited – Masri v Consolidated Contractors International Co Sal and Others HL 30-Jul-2009
The claimant sought to enforce a judgment debt against a foreign resident company, and for this purpose to examine or have examined a director who lived abroad. The defendant said that the rules gave no such power and they did, the power was outside . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.80789
Marsh CM
[2017] EWHC 916 (Ch)
England and Wales
Updated: 04 May 2022; Ref: scu.581971
Mr Justice Forbes
[2005] EWHC 1629 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 30 April 2022; Ref: scu.236236
A sterilisation operation had been performed negligently and failed and the claimant was born.
Held: The birth of a child with congenital abnormalities was a foreseeable consequence of the surgeon’s careless failure to clip a fallopian tube effectively. The authority could not expect her to terminate the pregnancy. The mother was entitled to recover damages, including damages for her future loss of earnings, following the birth of a child with congenital abnormalities who required constant medical and parental supervision.
Waller LJ said: ‘In my view it is trite to say that if a woman becomes pregnant, it is certainly foreseeable that she will have a baby, but in my judgment, having regard to the fact that in a proportion of all births – between one in 200 and one in 400 were the figures given at the trial – congenital abnormalities might arise, makes the risk clearly one that is foreseeable, as the law of negligence understands it.’
On a claim in contract the court held that there was no rule of public policy which precluded recovery of damages for pain and suffering and for maintaining the child. The court took a multiplier of 8 for a child 5 years old at the time of the appeal. The total award in respect of pain, suffering and loss of amenities was andpound;13,000.
Waller LJ
[1985] 1 QB 1012, [1984] 3 All ER 1044
England and Wales
Doubted – Udale v Bloomsbury Area Health Authority QBD 1983
The plaintiff underwent a sterilisation operation. The operation was painful and she later became pregnant. She sought damages for the pain and suffering and the additional costs of caring for the new child.
Held: Public policy held fast . .
Approved – Thake v Maurice CA 1986
A vasectomy was performed. The husband was told that contraception precautions were not necessary but a child was born. The claim was brought in contract and in tort. The first instance court found no reason why public policy prevented the recovery . .
Applied – Mekew v Holland and Hannen and Cubitts (Scotland) 1970
. .
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 – Spencer v Wincanton Holdings Ltd (Wincanton Logistics Ltd) CA 21-Dec-2009
The claimant suffered injury for which he sought compensation from his employers. He later had to have his leg amputated as a consequence, but then through his own inadvertence suffered further injury to his other leg and a complete loss of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 29 April 2022; Ref: scu.183007
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 which had already been litigated in proceedings in the criminal court in which he had been a participant. The case of Hunter does not lay down an inflexible rule to be applied willy-nilly to all cases which might arguably be said to be within it.
CS Sir Thomas Bingham MR identified: ‘the affront to any coherent system of justice which must necessarily arise if there subsist two final but inconsistent decisions of courts of competent jurisdiction. Such would, we think, be the case here if there were a subsisting Crown Court decision that Mr Smith was, beyond reasonable doubt, guilty of aggravated burglary and a subsisting civil court decision that if his defence been properly prepared he would and should have been acquitted. No reasonable observer could view this outcome with equanimity. ‘ and ‘It is, however, plain that the thrust of his case in these proceedings is that if his criminal defence had been handled with proper care he would not, and should not, have been convicted. Thus the soundness or otherwise of his criminal conviction is an issue at the heart of these proceedings. Were he to recover substantial damages, it could only be on the basis that he should not have been convicted . . It is certainly true that in his speech in Hunter’s case . . Lord Diplock attached considerable significance to the ulterior purpose which lay behind the proceedings brought by the intending plaintiff in that case. We have no doubt at all but that the existence of such an ulterior motive provides a strong and additional ground for holding proceedings to be an abuse. The question is whether such an ulterior motive is a necessary ingredient of abuse.’
Sir Thomas Bingham, MR
Gazette 28-Feb-1996, Times 07-Feb-1996, [1996] 1 WLR 763, [1996] 2 All ER 353
England and Wales
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 – 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 . .
Applied – Regina v Steidl and Baxendale-Walker 27-Jun-2002
(Southwark Crown Court) The case was a prosecution for serious fraud. In civil proceedings, despite evidence to suggest a powerful case for dishonesty, a High Court judge had concluded that the claimant had failed to establish that the defendant, . .
Applied0 – Regina v Stocker CCC 23-Nov-2004
(Central Criminal Court) The court was due to try a case alleging that the defendant had killed her child. In care proceedings Hedley J had concluded that a mother had killed her child, but he was positively satisfied that she lacked the intention . .
Cited – Regina v Belmarsh Magistrates’ Court ex parte Fiona Watts Admn 8-Feb-1999
The defendant sought to have dismissed as an abuse of proces charges against her that as an officer of Customs and Excise prosecuting the now private prosecutor, she had committed various offences.
Held: The magistrate was vested with . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 28 April 2022; Ref: scu.181090
The defendant faced a claim for breach of warranties given by vendors in a company share sale agreement. The sought a contribution from the purchasers accountants who had prepared figures upon which the purchase decision was based. The defendants’ liability was strictly in contract, but the contribution they sought arose in negligence. The Act formulated the liability widely. However the damage arising from one claim, was not the same as the other, and no mutual discharge would apply. The request had been refused, and the defendant appealed.
Held: The judge had erred in holding that there would be no mutual discharge, and therefore the claim was capable of being subject to a claim for contribution. The fact that different sums might be payable did not mean that the claims were different. It was not correct to try to judge the issue of whether it would be just and equitable to make an order at an interlocutory stage.
Potter LJ and Longmore LJ
Gazette 08-Nov-2001, [2001] EWCA Civ 1446, [2002] 1 WLR 642
Civil Liability (Contributions) Act 1978
England and Wales
Cited – The Carnival 1994
. .
Cited – Friends’ Provident Life Office v Hillier, Parker May and Rowden CA 1997
Friends Provident had participated in a development project on terms which required it to pay its share of the development costs as it proceeded. It employed Hillier Parker, a firm of surveyors, to check demands made from time to time for payment of . .
Cited – Howkins and Harrison (A Firm) v Tyler and Another CA 3-Aug-2000
Having paid out andpound;400,000 to a lender as damages for a negligent survey valuation after default in repayments by the defendant, the claimant also sought to recover the payment from the defendant under the Act. The application to stay the . .
Cited – Charter Plc and Another v City Index Ltd and others ChD 12-Oct-2006
An employee of the claimant had fraudulently spent several million pounds of the claimant’s money on personal bets through the defendant company. The claimant said that the defendants knew the origin of the funds and were liable to repay them. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 28 April 2022; Ref: scu.166542
The plaintiffs purchased their property after a valuation report to their lenders prepared by the respondent. The property was on an estate which proved to have serious faults of construction, and the design had proved at fault. The property could not be sold. They sought damages.
Held: The standard work for valuers stated that for such system built properties they could not be recommended without a clear full structural report. That had not been obtained. The appeal on liability by the valuer failed.
[1999] EWCA Civ 2045
England and Wales
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 . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 28 April 2022; Ref: scu.146960
A law firm dividing the drafting of substantial documentation between different sections of the firm must be liable in negligence, if no one senior person has overall responsibility and an error ensues. No need to seek rectification first.
Times 02-Apr-1999
England and Wales
Updated: 28 April 2022; Ref: scu.89603
The measure of damages for a negligent survey for mortgage purposes and relied upon by purchase was the general diminution of value together with any particular further losses, since if the claimant had been properly advised would have purchased other similar costing property.
Times 03-Dec-1998
England and Wales
Updated: 28 April 2022; Ref: scu.84601
A solicitor acting for both a borrower and a lender has a duty to tell the lender of his other, lay client’s bad payment record.
Times 31-Dec-1996, Gazette 15-Jan-1997
England and Wales
Updated: 28 April 2022; Ref: scu.84182
Instructions to insure for ‘mortality risks’ did not impliedly include instructions to insure for theft (Shergar).
Independent 13-May-1994
England and Wales
Updated: 28 April 2022; Ref: scu.84410
A solicitor who had been put on enquiry as to a valuation of a property must report his doubts to his mortgagee client also.
Times 19-May-1994
England and Wales
Appeal from – Mortgage Express Ltd v Bowerman and Partners (A Firm) CA 1-Aug-1995
A solicitor acting for both a lender and a borrower was under a duty to disclose relevant information to the lender client. An incident of their duty to exercise reasonable care and skill, solicitors are obliged to advise their lender client in . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 28 April 2022; Ref: scu.83874
The solicitors appealed against a finding of professional negligence in having failed to secure registration of their client’s title at HMLR
Gloster VP LJ, Sales, David Richards LJJ
[2018] EWCA Civ 2031
England and Wales
Updated: 27 April 2022; Ref: scu.622327
[2018] EWCA Civ 1882
England and Wales
Updated: 26 April 2022; Ref: scu.621536
[2018] EWHC 2109 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 26 April 2022; Ref: scu.621435
Professional negligence claim brought by the claimant national housebuilder
[2018] EWHC 1915 (TCC)
England and Wales
Updated: 26 April 2022; Ref: scu.621146
[2018] EWHC 2064 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 25 April 2022; Ref: scu.620629
Claim for clinical negligence relating to bariatric surgery
[2018] EWHC 1917 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 25 April 2022; Ref: scu.620626
[2018] EWHC 2010 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 25 April 2022; Ref: scu.620618
Claim for professional negligence brought against the Claimant’s former solicitors
[2018] EWHC 2034 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 25 April 2022; Ref: scu.620622
The bank appealed from a finding that it was liable to the claimant mortgagees in that it had negligently failed to conduct a Home Buyer’s Report as reuested.
[2018] EWHC 1805 (TCC)
England and Wales
Updated: 25 April 2022; Ref: scu.620132
The defendant solicitors appealed against an order extending the time period for claiming against them in negligence.
Held: The appeal failed. The court however noted conflicting decisions and looked forward to guidance from the Court of Appeal.
Turner J
[2018] EWHC 1751 (QB), [2018] WLR(D) 422
England and Wales
Updated: 25 April 2022; Ref: scu.620078
Appeal against an order for damages for professional negligence against a Spanish lawyer who acted for the purchasers of holiday homes in Spain. The purchasers, who are the respondents to this appeal, in each case paid the purchase price in full but did not receive good title to the properties bought by them.
[2018] EWCA Civ 1589
England and Wales
Updated: 25 April 2022; Ref: scu.619382
Evans-Lombe J expressed an unwillingness to accept any all-embracing test for what may constitute the breaking of the chain of causation, saying: ‘It seems to me that what will constitute such conduct is so fact-sensitive to the facts of any case where the issue arises that it is almost impossible to generalise. If one must do so, I would say that it must be some unreasonable conduct, not necessarily unforeseeable . . a new cause coming in and disturbing the sequence of events . . not necessarily reckless . . which may result from an accumulation of events which in sum have the effect of removing the negligence sued on as a cause . . which accumulation of events may take place over time.’
The Honourable Mr Justice Evans-Lombe
[2003] EWHC 1319 (Ch), [2003] Lloyd’s Rep IR 566, [2003] PNLR 34
England and Wales
Cited – Rose v Plenty CA 7-Jul-1975
Contrary to his employers orders, a milkman allowed children to assist him in his milkround. One was injured, and sued the milkman’s employer.
Held: The milkman had not gone so far outside the activities for which he was employed for the . .
Cited – Borealis Ab v Geogas Trading Sa ComC 9-Nov-2010
The parties had contracted for sale and purchase of butane for processing. It was said to have been contaminated. The parties now disputed the effect on damages for breach including on causation, remoteness, mitigation and quantum.
Held: The . .
Cited – Singularis Holdings Ltd v Daiwa Capital Markets Europe Ltd SC 30-Oct-2019
The Court was asked whether a claim against a bank for breach of the Quincecare duty is defeated if the customer is a company, and the fraudulent payment instructions are given by the company’s Chairman and sole shareholder who is the dominating . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 24 April 2022; Ref: scu.183401
Cook M
[2018] EWHC 1345 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 22 April 2022; Ref: scu.617223
This case concerns treatment given to the claimant, a girl then aged 9, while in King’s College Hospital, following neurosurgery in 2008.
Yip DBE J
[2018] EWHC 1170 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 22 April 2022; Ref: scu.616159
Solicitors acting for a vendor were liable to the buyers’ mortgagees for breach of warranty of authority for vendor. The solicitor was negligent in not having verified the instructions from the wife who was the joint tenant.
Gazette 13-Jul-1995, Times 19-Jun-1995, [1995] FLR 938
England and Wales
Appealed to – Penn v Bristol and West Building Society and Others CA 24-Apr-1997
The solicitor innocently accepted instructions to sell a property, but was misled as to the identity of the wife – one of the joint owners. Unknown to him, however, Mr Penn had forged his wife’s signature on the contract documents. He was sued by . .
Appeal from – Penn v Bristol and West Building Society and Others CA 24-Apr-1997
The solicitor innocently accepted instructions to sell a property, but was misled as to the identity of the wife – one of the joint owners. Unknown to him, however, Mr Penn had forged his wife’s signature on the contract documents. He was sued by . .
Cited – Al-Sabah v Ali and Others ChD 22-Jan-1999
The claimant alleged the fraudulent transfer of properties by use of a forged power of attorney.
Held: The power was fraudulent. Solicitors had acted under the instructions of the agent. The court referred to the Law Society’s practice . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 15 April 2022; Ref: scu.84654
Underhill J
[2008] EWHC 917 (QB)
England and Wales
Updated: 14 April 2022; Ref: scu.267541
[2018] ScotCS CSOH – 44
Scotland
Updated: 14 April 2022; Ref: scu.609371
[2018] ScotCS CSIH – 32
Scotland
Updated: 14 April 2022; Ref: scu.609373
[2018] ScotCS CSOH – 29
Scotland
Updated: 14 April 2022; Ref: scu.609370
Where an auditor had negligently failed to identify the insolvency of a company and to warn against payment of dividends, the auditor was liable in damages for dividends wrongly paid.
Times 25-Aug-1998
England and Wales
Appealed to – Sasea Finance Ltd v KPMG (Formerly KPMG Peat Marwick Mclintock) ChD 10-May-2001
It was complained that the auditors had failed timeously to warn the company of fraud by a senior employee. The appeal concerned an application to strike out heads of claim in an action brought by the company against its auditors for negligence.
Appeal from – Sasea Finance Ltd v KPMG (Formerly KPMG Peat Marwick Mclintock) ChD 10-May-2001
It was complained that the auditors had failed timeously to warn the company of fraud by a senior employee. The appeal concerned an application to strike out heads of claim in an action brought by the company against its auditors for negligence.
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 13 April 2022; Ref: scu.89019
The claimants sought damages after the death of their daughter whilst in the care of the defendant.
Yelton HHJ
[2014] EWHC 4244 (QB)
Cited – Liverpool Women’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trust v Ronayne CA 17-Jun-2015
The respondent was an experienced ambulance driver. His wife underwent emergency treatment at the appellant’s hospital. He had claimed as a secondary victim for the distress he suffered witnessing her suffering.
Held: The hospital’s appeal . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 12 April 2022; Ref: scu.540255
cw Proposed amendments to a plaintiff’s pleadings were insufficient to prevent a striking out. The amendments either sought to advance by a different route the earlier claim which was bound to fail, or to introduce a new cause of action which was statute barred and did not derive from the same, or substantially the same, facts.
Unreported, 13 December 1996
England and Wales
Appealed to – Bristol and West Building Society v Baden Barnes and Groves CA 2000
cw Proposed amendments to a plaintiff’s pleadings failed to prevent a striking out. The amendments either sought to advance by a different route the earlier claim which was bound to fail, or sought to introduce a . .
Appeal from – Bristol and West Building Society v Baden Barnes and Groves CA 2000
cw Proposed amendments to a plaintiff’s pleadings failed to prevent a striking out. The amendments either sought to advance by a different route the earlier claim which was bound to fail, or sought to introduce a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 12 April 2022; Ref: scu.184541
The measure of damages for a negligent survey was either the excess paid, or the diminution of value. The question of the uncertainty of what decisions would have been taken had further surveys been made was of no significance. The wrongly surveyed building, being in this case a main building rather than an outbuilding, damages were also awarded for hire of storage space.
Gazette 21-Jul-1999
Appealed to – Dickinson (T/a John Dickinson Equipment Finance) v Rushmer (T/a F J Associates) CA 14-Feb-2000
. .
Appeal from – Dickinson (T/a John Dickinson Equipment Finance) v Rushmer (T/a F J Associates) CA 14-Feb-2000
. .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 10 April 2022; Ref: scu.88923
The dismissal of an action for negligence against a licensed conveyancer for failing to disclose to the client the existence of a right of way, did not prevent his professional body disciplining him out of the same facts and awarding compensation. The test of negligence is not the same as the test of whether he had provided an inadequate professional service.
Times 16-Jun-2000
Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 Sch 8
Updated: 09 April 2022; Ref: scu.85203
Where negligent advice lead to the birth of a disabled child who would not otherwise have been conceived, the damages to be awarded could include the costs of educating and otherwise caring for the child beyond the age of eighteen. Such duties did not finish with the end of legal responsibility.
Times 26-Nov-1999, Gazette 25-Nov-1999
Applied – Allen v Bloomsbury Health Authority 1993
The plaintiff sought damages after a failed sterilisation. She had been apprehensive during the pregnancy that the child might be handicapped, and in the event the child suffered from temper tantrums, a speech defect and slight dyslexia.
Held: . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 09 April 2022; Ref: scu.84388
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 obtain a retrospective valuation. That burden was not carried in this case.
Times 24-Apr-2000, [2000] PNLR 820
England and Wales
Appeal froom – Mortgage Corporation v Lambert and Co (A Firm) and Another ChD 11-Oct-1999
Estimates of the real values of houses which had been taken as security for loans were not sufficiently precise to forewarn a lender of the damage resulting from earlier negligent valuations, and accordingly the lender was not fixed with notice by . .
Appealed to – Mortgage Corporation v Lambert and Co (A Firm) and Another ChD 11-Oct-1999
Estimates of the real values of houses which had been taken as security for loans were not sufficiently precise to forewarn a lender of the damage resulting from earlier negligent valuations, and accordingly the lender was not fixed with notice by . .
Cited – 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 . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 09 April 2022; Ref: scu.83872
Solicitor giving advice to professional land agent that must ensure land was suitable for development was not negligent when covenants were not disclosed.
Gazette 04-Feb-1998
Updated: 09 April 2022; Ref: scu.83591
A vendor’s estate agent was liable for a negligent misrepresentation to a party proceeding with a purchase relying upon what had been said, and without his own survey.
Gazette 30-Mar-1994, Times 25-Jan-1994
Appealed to – McCullagh v Lane Fox and Partners Ltd CA 19-Dec-1995
There was no duty in negligent mis-statement from a vendor’s estate agent to a purchaser for that purchaser’s financial loss after proceeding without first obtaining a survey relying upon the agent.
Hobhouse LJ said: ‘On the Sunday, Mr. Scott . .
Appeal from – McCullagh v Lane Fox and Partners Ltd CA 19-Dec-1995
There was no duty in negligent mis-statement from a vendor’s estate agent to a purchaser for that purchaser’s financial loss after proceeding without first obtaining a survey relying upon the agent.
Hobhouse LJ said: ‘On the Sunday, Mr. Scott . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 09 April 2022; Ref: scu.83516
A patient had an operation which appeared to have gone unsuccessfully, but only much later proved to have been the source of an injury.
Held: Time could only begin to run when the fact of the injury became known. He was not fixed with knowledge of the injury by an awareness of the deterioration following the operation.
Times 07-Dec-1999
England and Wales
Updated: 08 April 2022; Ref: scu.82481
A breach by a solicitor of the Law Society’s ‘Guide to Professional Conduct’ was not ipso facto negligence. The guide set out what was proper and accepted practice. It was hot however mandatoty to follow it, and the existence of negligence was to be determined in accordance with the principles set out following Donoghue v Stevenson.
B A Hytner QC
Times 28-Feb-1995
Updated: 08 April 2022; Ref: scu.82549
The defendant firm of solicitors acted on the sale of property, but failed to notify a purchaser that he was in a contract race and that another contract had been sent out. The claimant would have been able to exchange, and to have acquired the property.
Held: The defendants had failed to follow their own professional rules and were liable, even though in this case the damages were minimal in the absence of any proof of loss of profits.
Chadwick LJ said: ‘This was a property with development potential. It is common ground that this property was no longer to be used as a village hall. It would have to be used for some other purpose; and there would have to be some development so that it could be used for that purpose. The question was: for what development could planning permission be obtained and how valuable would the property be on completion of that development? But those are the factors which a properly informed market will take into account in fixing the market value of property. The profit potential of the property is an element to be taken into account in fixing its market value. It is not suggested that there was anything special about this property to the appellants as purchasers. It is not suggested that there were not other developers in the market for property of this nature who could have made a proper assessment of the value of this property. The problem for the appellants in the present case is that they never sought to persuade the judge – and never adduced evidence to establish – that the market value of this property, Dukes Hall, was anything greater than the pounds 67,500 which the Parish Council was seeking. It is for those reasons that the claim for loss of profits is one which the court could not entertain in this case. . . In the present case, there is no evidence that these appellants would not have been able to purchase other property in the market which they could develop profitably with the use of the money which they did not lay out in the purchase of Dukes Hall. There is no evidence that the respondents, insofar as their duty lay in contract, were aware of any special circumstances which made it impossible for the respondents to employ their funds in the ordinary course of their business, or of any circumstances which suggested that this property was being sold at an under-value. Indeed, in the circumstances that they were acting for the vendors, the Parish Council, it would be most unlikely that they would regard the property as being sold at an under- value rather than at market price’.
Chadwick LJ
Gazette 30-Mar-2000, 2000 BNLR 616
England and Wales
Cited – Joyce v Bowman Law Ltd ChD 18-Feb-2010
The claimant asserted negligence by the defendant licensed conveyancers in not warning him of the effect of an option in the contract. He had been advised that it would allow him to choose to buy additional land, but it was in fact a put option. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Updated: 08 April 2022; Ref: scu.82513