Cases - Sheldon v RHM Outhwaite (Underwriting Agencies) Ltd
Record details
- Name
- Sheldon v RHM Outhwaite (Underwriting Agencies) Ltd
- Date
- [1995]
- Citation
- 2 WLR 570
- Legislation
- Keywords
- Negligence in valuations and surveys - Limitation Act 1980, s. 32(1)(b)
- Summary
-
In 1992, the claimants (all of whom were Lloyd's Names) brought proceedings against the defendants for negligence, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty.
The defendants contested that their actions were time-barred, such breaches having occurred in or around 1982. The claimants responded by contending that relevant facts to their causes of action had been deliberately concealed by the defendants in 1984 and, accordingly, limitation did not expire until six years following the discovery of such concealment.
The House of Lords held that Limitation Act 1980, section 32(1)(b) applied in circumstances where a deliberate concealment of relevant facts took place after the accrual of a cause of action. Lord Browne-Wilkinson, in delivering the leading judgment, explained that any other construction of the Act:
'... would lead to an unfair result inconsistent with the underlying rationale of the section, viz. that the defendants would be entitled to benefit from their own unconscionable behaviour by deliberately concealing the facts relevant to the plaintiffs' cause of action'.