Cases - Murphy v Brentwood District Council

Record details

Name
Murphy v Brentwood District Council
Date
[1991]
Citation
1 AC 398; HL
Legislation
Keywords
Development of the law of tort - no general duty of care from the council
Summary

In this case the claimant purchased a house from a house-builder who had built a large estate. The house was built on a concrete raft foundation that subsequently failed. The design of the raft foundation had previously been approved by the defendant council. The claimant sold the house for £35,000 less than the value it would have attracted without the defects, and sought the difference in value from the council.

The House of Lords held that:

  • despite their earlier decision in Anns v Merton London Borough [1978] AC 728, there was no general duty of care resting on local authorities to secure compliance with building by-laws or regulations. They determined that Anns was wrongly decided;
  • the defendant council did not owe the claimant a duty to take reasonable care to safeguard him against pure economic loss, which was not injury to person or health.

This case has far-reaching implications in the development of the law of tort, in cases where the only loss is pure economic loss. In effect, the House of Lords decided that there was no general duty of care in such cases, but only such duty of care as is developed by the courts on a case-by-case basis.