Negligent misstatement

A germane category of non-contractual liability that can often sit side-by-side with contractual liabilities: one not to be sniffed at – often the liability will fall outside the ambit of an associated contract, so questions of concurrent liability -– already a difficult area of the law in any case – will not get you home.

The modern law on negligent misstatement all flows from a single, celebrated case: Hedley Byrne v Heller – which, irony of ironies, found that whilst one could be liable for a negligent misstatement, in this case the defendant was not, on account of an artfully placed disclaimer of exactly the liability in question.

Recently supported in a good outing for the Supreme Court of the Republic of Ireland in Walsh v Jones Lang Lasalle.

See also

• Negligence
• Concurrent liability