Professional Negligence Actions – Non Suit

Where a plaintiff fails to make out a prima facie case, defendants to professional negligence actions and their insurers may be in a position at the end of the plaintiff's evidence to make an application for non-suit.  A recent decision of the Supreme Court has reinforced the need for a trial court to consider a plaintiff's evidence at its best before concluding that there is no case for a defendant to answer in evidence.

Murphy v Callaghan was a professional negligence action against a firm of solicitors.  The High Court dismissed the plaintiff's case at the close of her evidence, holding that in a non-suit application there must be credible and reliable evidence raising a case for defendants to answer but that, in this case, the plaintiff's evidence was confused, unreliable and, in part not credible. It found that expert evidence fell away under cross-examination and held that there was no prima facie negligence.