High Court Clarifies Test For Valuers' Liability In Bratt v Jones

In determining a negligence claim against a valuer for an alleged under-valuation of a residential development site, the High Court considered whether it was sufficient when considering the question of liability to focus on the end result of the valuation, rather than the valuer's process of arriving at his result – raising the question of whether a valuer must separately and additionally be shown to have fallen below the standard of a reasonably competent valuer (the Bolam test). In dismissing the claim, the Court gave careful consideration to the apparently conflicting cases applicable to determining valuers' liability and clarified the correct legal test to be applied in such cases.