Negligent Misstatement in Business

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The tort of negligent statement was established in 1964 and before that date, the cases relied upon contract law or considered as the tort of deceit, as judges were hostile to allow compensation for pure economic loss (Turner, 2010). The consequence of negligent misstatement is pure economic loss, which in early decades was concerned to compensate only for physical damage (Cooke, 2011). Deceit is a fraudulent misrepresented made knowingly or recklessly. Derry v Peek (1889) established that deceit is proven when the statement is made intentionally, whereas negligent misstatement it is not made intentionally (Murphy and Witting, 2012).

The first case where arose the need to owe a duty of care for negligent misstatement by an accountant was found in Candler v Crane Christmas (1951), where no duty was owed as the professionals had no contractual relationship with the claimant, although Lord Denning’s dissenting judgement (Harpwood, 2003).
Candler was later on overruled by Hedley Byrne v Heller & Partners (1963), which included also Lord Denning dissents judgement. The verdict of this case was that the professionals owe a duty of care also to people which are not in contact with them, as a result, this widened the liability of all professionals. In Hedley Byrne, Heller (defendant) was not liable as there was a valid disclaimer that exempted him from any responsibility.

The House of Lords decided to restrict the imposing of foresight test, established by Lord Atkin in Donoghue v Stevenson (1932), as it would result in a floodgate (Wild and Weinstein, 2013). In addition, the House of Lords decided that in negligent misstatement cases there is need of a “special relationship” between who makes the statement and the party which is inju...

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...s been established, it has to be proved if the defendant (professional) has breached the duty of care and as a result, the claimant suffered harm (financial loss). In order to establish the breach of duty, the reasonable standard of a professional needs to be applied. In the case Lloyd Cheyham & Co v Littlejohn & Co Ltd (1987) the judgement was based on the standard of care of an accountant established by the Institute of Chartered Accountants Standards (Boyt, 2013).
Once the breach is confirmed, it has to be verified whether the damage suffered (financial loss) by the defendant was a direct consequence of the professional negligence. Professional advisors have defence from liability due to have caused financial loss throughout their negligent statements. The exemption is authorized by S2 (2) Unfair Contract Terms Act (1977) based on the factor of reasonableness.

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