The court held that at the time when the advice was given, the claimant was not known to the defendants, and was simply one of a large class of women who might have had a sexual relationship with the patient before them. Anns v Merton [1978] Uncategorized Legal Case Notes October 13, 2018 May 28, 2019. This is obvious in the wills cases, but also applies to cases such as Smith v Eric S Bush. The defendant was a specialist subcontractor brought into lay a special type of floor. A third party suffered financial loss from relying on the figures produced by an accounting firm. The defendant Council was accountable for inspecting the foundations during the flats construction and had failed to … Facts and background. APPEAL from a judgment of the British Columbia Court of Appeal, 1982 CanLII 419 (BC CA), [1982] 2 W.W.R. This case was overruled by Murphy v Brentwood DC [1991]. Court cases similar to or like Anns v Merton LBC. Local authority inspected and negligently approved defective foundations. Anns v Merton LBC AC 728 (HL) Why Anns v Merton LBC is important In Anns v Merton LBC, the defendant Council was held to owe a duty to take reasonable care when reviewing the foundations of buildings under construction. The father instructed the solicitors to renew the legacies. When the tenant, Mardon fell into arrears with his rent, Esso sued him, so Mardon counter-claimed for damages for negligent misrepresentation. : The court held that in such situations surveyors assumed a duty of care to house purchasers. (3d) 464, 33 B.C.L.R. The claimant’s house was badly built and the defective foundation had caused cracking in the walls. The law of tort has been reluctant to allow such a claim. Smith v Eric S Bush It can be argued that the role of tort law is to compensate those who have actually suffered loss, and those who wish to protect their expectation of gain should do so through contract. The flats suffered from structural defects due to inadequate foundations which were 2ft 6in deep instead of 3ft deep as required. It established a broad test for determining the existence of a duty of care in the tort of negligence called the Anns test or sometimes retronymically the two-stage test. In view of the disclaimer, the House of Lords held that no duty of care was accepted by Heller and none arose, so the claim failed. Caparo relied on an auditor’s report prepared by Dickman when deciding whether to invest in Fidelity. It can be said that the claimants did not have money taken from them, but they simply bought a house which was worth less than they thought. White v Jones This privacy policy is subject to change without notice and was last updated on 6th August 2018. Spartan Steel v Martin illustrates the difference between the types of loss. For Lord Wilberforce therefore, proximity (a wide concept) is used to first determine if a duty is owed. In Anns v Merton London Borough Council (LBC), the House of Lords confirmed the shift to a principled approach to the duty of care. The local authority approved building plans for a block of flats and the flats were built later that year. After he died, they had yet to change the will. The wills cases are an example of this, and the result is uncertainty about their scope. Anns v Merton LBC. House of Lords held building owner could recover damages. This is particularly important in the context of liability of public authorities. It suggests that public authorities should be treated in accordance with the orthodox principles of the tort of negligence, and irrespective of the statutory context. Whether a duty was owed by the council and, if so, what was that duty. However, Anns was eventually overruled by Murphy v Brentwood District Council, where the defects in products were to be regarded as pure economic loss and could not be compensated in negligence. Caparo Industries plc v Dickman, Overseas Tankship (UK) Ltd v Morts Dock & Engineering Co Ltd (Wagon Mound) [1961], Fairchild v Glenhaven Funeral Services [2003], Barnett v Chelsea and Kensington Hospital Management Committee [1969], Anns v Merton LBC [1978] AC 728 (theoretical test), R (Freedom and Justice Party) v SS Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs: How Should International Law Inform the Common Law. Anns v Merton London Borough Council [1977] UKHL 4, [1978] AC 728. The claimants were lessees of a property. 2, distinguished. Their property was damaged due to insufficient foundations which failed to meet the statutory requirements (set out in local byelaws). On the other hand, it can be argued that the tort system in fact allows too much redress for pure economic loss. The Council owed a duty to take reasonable care when deciding whether to exercise its powers of investigation. No Acts. Caparo v Dickman The court held that in knowing that Mr Dean was not taking independent advice, the solicitor knew that he was being relied on to ensure that there was effective security for the loan, and therefore in continuing to act, without recommending that Mr Dean take independent advice, he was assuming a responsibility to him. In the case of Anns v Merton 1977, the plaintiffs were tenants in flats. Whilst it allowed the liberal expansion of the law, and encouraged the thorough consideration of policy factors in a judgement, it was too generous and created confusion. In most cases, what we are really talking about is not loss, but failure to make a gain. The accountants (defendants) to a firm of solicitors failed to uncover the fact that a senior partner in the firm was defrauding clients, and over 300 clients claimed compensation from the Law Society. Secondly, it is important in defining the test for a duty of care. 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