Alison Padfield explains why legal clarity & coherence trumped fairness in Scullion
The Court of Appeal has decided that a surveyor engaged to provide a valuation of a buy-to-let property for a lender does not owe a duty of care in tort to the purchaser (Scullion v Bank of Scotland plc (trading as Colleys) [2011] EWCA Civ 693 [2011] All ER (D) 126 (Jun)). Resisting the temptation to allow a hard case to make bad law, Lord Neuberger MR (giving the only reasoned judgment) reversed the decision of the judge below, even though it appeared, as he said, that the purchaser had been taken advantage of by a property development company, had been misled badly by his conveyancing solicitors, had been innocently involved in a mortgage scam orchestrated by a number of people, and had been misinformed by the valuer. As a result, the purchaser bought the flat which was the subject of the proceedings, and lost a “not insignificant” amount of money.
The claimant, Mr Scullion, started his working life as
