Limitation In Professional Negligence - Not The "Real World"?

In an interesting judgment last week, a High Court judge made clear how difficult it can be to determine when damage is suffered for the purpose of limitation rules in professional negligence claims.

After reviewing a large number of House of Lords and Court of Appeal authorities in this area he found that they did not provide any "easy answers" for a first instance judge responsible for applying them.

He decided that a claim in respect of a £90m capital gains tax reinvestment relief scheme was statute barred but confessed that this outcome ran contrary to his first impression when looking at the case.

Facts

April 1998

Mr B, following advice from his accountants, E&Y, subscribed £90 million (from the proceeds of sale of his electronics business) for shares in a recently incorporated Luxembourg registered company, Pegasus, which intended subsequently to acquire other qualifying businesses to make good Mr B's claim for reinvestment relief.