VALUER DID NOT OWE A DUTY OF CARE TO OWNER OF PROPERTY

Raja v Austin Gray (a firm) [2002] EWCA Civ 1965

The Court of Appeal in Raja v Austin Gray (a firm) [2002] EWCA Civ 1965 has allowed an appeal from the decision of Mr Justice Buckley (on which see our November 2002 issue, pp.6–8) and held that the defendant valuers did not owe a duty of care at common law to the owner of properties which they were valuing. The defendants were instructed to value the properties by receivers who were appointed to a company to which the claimant had charged the properties by way of security for a series of loans. The principal reason for concluding that the defendants did not owe a duty of care to the claimant was that negligence on their part in the valuation of the properties would put both the mortgagee and the receivers in breach of their duty in equity to the claimant. Given that the claimant had available to him a remedy against the mortgagee and the receivers it was held not to be fair, just and reasonable to impose a duty of care on the defendants for the benefit of the claimant.