Cases - Whalley v Roberts & Roberts

Record details

Name

Whalley v Roberts & Roberts

Date

[1990]

Citation

06 EG 104, QBD

Keywords

Expert witness - negligence in valuations and surveys

Summary

The defendant surveyors, in carrying out a mortgage valuation of a bungalow for a bank, failed to notice that the property was out of level. However, the property showed no visible signs of subsidence, such as cracking (it appeared that the defect had been deliberately camouflaged). In a claim brought against the surveyors, both parties called as expert witnesses representatives of other professions:

• a civil engineer for the claimants;
• an architect for the defendants; and
• a chartered surveyor on each side.

The judge held that on the issue of negligence by the defendants 'it is only the evidence of the surveyors ... that may be of value on this issue'. The civil engineer and the architect 'however competent they may be in their respective professions, cannot speak with authority on what is to be expected of the ordinarily competent surveyor'.

The court applied Investors in Industry v South Bedfordshire on this point.