The High Court has recently handed down judgment in Gonul Guney v Kingsley Napley & Anor [2016] EWHC 2349 (QB). This was a professional liability claim based on the Claimant’s retainer of the Defendant solicitors, in respect of litigation concerning the estate of the Claimant’s father. It touches upon a number of issues of interest to those involved in a broad range of civil litigation.
The court was faced with cross applications:
The Claimant argued that the proposed amendments should not be regarded as truly late, as they would not cause the trial to be derailed, that the same would only have limited impact on the case, and turn on factual evidence from the Claimant and family members, and the same were necessary to ensure justice is done between the parties.
The Defendant diametrically-opposed submissions were that the proposed amendments were both fundamental and too late. In addition, they submit that there are entirely at odds with the pleaded case.
McGowan J produced a summary of the law pertaining to such applications:
The learned judge held as to the Claimant’s application to amend was manifestly made as a reaction to and in an attempt to defeat the Defendant’s Applications, and were “misconceived and much too late in the protracted history of this litigation” (paragraph 26).
In respect of the Defendant’s Applications, it was held that its applications for summary judgment and/or strike out are made in good time.
The court gave summary judgement as to two aspects of the claim relating to whether the Defendant breached its fiduciary duty and an alleged lost opportunity to share in the increase in value of estate property.
The Court struck out the claim for loss of profits brought by the Claimant (a solicitor herself) to her own practice in assisting the gathering of evidence for the case. It was held that the Defendants had not “been put on notice that this was having a detrimental effect on her own practice and it was never in the contemplation of the parties that they had assumed such a risk. Even if they had been made aware of such a risk it is too remote from the duties they assumed to include this. In any event this has never been particularised and still remains an assertion without evidence.” (paragraph 24)
The Court also struck out the claim for damages for stress and inconvenience. It held “Such general damages are irrecoverable. This was a not a contract for the provision of a holiday, a pleasurable activity relaxation or peace of mind. … This was a contract to act in relation to a family dispute over inheritance matters. It is too remote to say that solicitors conducting litigation assume liability for the stresses that that imposes on the litigants involved. It is difficult to imagine what would happen to litigation if there was such a general duty. The Claimant denies that this is a personal injury claim and relies on Malyon v Lawrance, Messer & Co [1968] QBD 2 539 but that was a case in which the litigant claimed damages for the aggravation of his injuries by the solicitors’ negligent delay when those injuries were the cause of action in the case. This claim discloses no reasonable ground and has never been particularised.”
The judgment is available at http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2016/2349.html.
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