Cases - Clonard Developments Ltd v Humberts
Record details
- Name
- Clonard Developments Ltd v Humberts
- Date
- [1999]
- Citation
- EGCS 7, CA
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Expert witness - negligence in valuations and surveys
- Summary
-
The claimant, a firm of property developers, wished to purchase a property for the purpose of converting it into holiday cottages. Before entering into the transaction the claimants obtained two independent valuations, using the higher of these to obtain finance for the development from a bank. The claimants brought an action for negligence against the provider of the higher valuation.
In this negligent valuation case the first instance judge had described the valuation expert witness as 'unhampered by impartiality'. The appellant developers challenged this description, but the Court of Appeal upheld the judge's right to reach such a finding and rejected the criticism:
'A judge sitting at first instance must always be astute to the possibility that the expert before him may not be fulfilling his role as an impartial or objective adviser and is seeking to espouse the cause for which he has been instructed.'
The first instance judge in this case:
'... was clearly left with the firm impression that, consciously or unconsciously, the experts had ceased to be impartial, were espousing the cause and thus assuming the role of advocate. If this were his perception it was his duty to say so and to act accordingly by rejecting or discounting those parts of their evidence which was so tainted'.