Date: Tue, 8 May 2007 18:18

From: Robert Stevens

Subject: Good news/bad news

The lucky/unlucky devil was on the local news last night. His expenditure included buying a black suit to be buried in.

Sadly the interesting question of quantification (to what extent can he say that expenditure he would not have chosen to incur if he had known the truth is a genuine loss when he incurred it for his own pleasure) may not arise as the hospital claim that they were not negligent. Given the data at the time, the prognosis was not negligent.

I suspect, but don't know, that the letter giving him his prognosis also contained a disclaimer. The effectiveness of disclaimers shows that a negligent statement, reliance and foreseeable financial loss caused by that reliance cannot be sufficient conditions of recovery. An assumption of responsibility is necessary too.

Robert Stevens

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