Negligence and the scope of the duty of care

In Eiger Funding (PCC) Ltd v Ridge and Partners LLP [2026] EWHC 609 (TCC) Mr Adrian Williamson KC, sitting as a Deputy Judge of the High Court, held that the claimant was entitled to recover damages of £2.5 million from the defendant independent fund monitoring surveyors. On the evidence he found that the defendant had failed to exercise reasonable care and skill in relation to the adequacy of the contract sum for the project and in identifying the costs required to complete the project. Further he found that the claimant had made out a potentially causative breach of duty in relation to allegations that the defendant had a conflict of interest in so far as it had acted for both parties to the transaction. In relation to the proof of loss and scope of the duty owed by the defendant to the claimant, it was held that the risk that the duty of the defendant was supposed to guard against was that the claimant would enter into a loan agreement to provide financing for the development on the basis of construction costs or costs to complete the development which made the loan unduly hazardous.