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In Wellesley Partners LLP v Withers LLP 2015 EWCA Civ 1146, a solicitors’ negligence case, the Court of Appeal considered, for the initially time, what rule of remoteness of damage applies in situations where there is concurrent liability in contract and in tort. Certainly, whilst the criteria of reasonable foreseeability and affordable reliance serve to distinguish cases exactly where a prima facie duty is owed from those where it is not, it is nevertheless true that in particular sorts of scenarios these criteria can, very quickly, be happy and absent some indicates by which to circumscribe the ambit of the duty, the prospect of limitless liability will loom.

Additional lately, the courts have in a quantity of cases restricted the ability of parties to rely on concurrent tortious duties in establishing a claim, especially in construction disputes. Remoteness in contract is governed by the decision in Hadley v Baxendale (1854) 9 Ex 341 which held that heads of loss would only be permitted if they had been in the contemplation of the parties” at the time the contract was created. The major case on concurrent liability for pre-contractual misrepresentation is BG Checo International Ltd. For example, where the contractual limitation on the tort duty is partial, a tort action founded on the modified duty may lie.

Importantly, a provided pre-contractual misrepresentation may well, but not must, give rise to liability in both tort and contract (Economic Negligence, 5th Edition, by Bruce Feldthusen, pg 87) (Feldthusen”). Contract: the plaintiff is to be place in the … Read the rest >>>