DAMAGES FOR MISREPRESENTATION

Pankhania v Hackney London Borough Council [2004] All ER (D) 205 (Jan)

It was confirmed in Pankhania v Hackney London Borough Council [2004] All ER (D) 205 (Jan) that the measure of damages recoverable by a claimant who brings a claim pursuant to s2(1) of the Misrepresentation Act 1967 is the same measure as that recoverable in an action for deceit. On the facts Mr Geoffrey Vos QC, sitting as a deputy judge of the High Court, held that the ‘normal measure’ of damages was recoverable in a case in which the defendants’ misrepresentation had induced the claimants to purchase land which they would not otherwise have bought. The ‘normal measure’ was held to be the difference between the value of the land as it was expected to be and the value of the land in the condition in which the claimants acquired it. This measure is not an inevitable measure but it will generally be the measure applied by the courts in the absence of circumstances which suggest that another measure is more appropriate.