The Law Lords have ruled that surveyors cannot be sued for negligence for bad advice given more than six years beforehand.
The judgement was handed down yesterday at the appeal of the Cave vs Robinson, Jarvis and Rolfe case, which had removed the time limits on negligence claims against solicitors, surveyors and other professional advisers. The original ruling would have allowed claimants to sue advisers long after the adviser had given the advice, even if they had retired.
Summing up, Lord Millett said that the “harshness” of the previous ruling “subverts the whole purpose of the Limitation Acts”.
He said: “In the absence of intentional wrong doing it is neither just nor consistent with the policy of the Limitation Acts to expose a professional man to a claim for negligence long after he has retired from practice and has ceased to be covered by indemnity insurance.”
Richard Gerrard of indemnity insurer St Paul said: “This is excellent news for all professional advisers.”
EGi News 26/04/02
