Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 11:25

From: Ken Oliphant

Subject: Mental Illness and Special Relationships

Jason

Try McLoughlin v Jones [2001] EWCA Civ 1743, [2002] Q.B. 1312, where assumption of responsibility is one of the tests considered by Brooke LJ (with implicit though not express mention of Hedley Byrne). It's a case of solicitor/client, so therefore contractual, but the court seems to have treated the tort principles as decisive, albeit tailored to fit the contractual relationship.

I can't pretend that the analysis is especially illuminating ...

Ken

--On 24 October 2007 12:52 -0400 Jason Neyers wrote:

Colleagues:

Following on from our recent discussions, does anyone know of a case where someone has argued that there should be recovery for mental distress/illness on the basis of a Hedley Byrne type assumption of responsibility?

Any thoughts?   

----------------------
Ken Oliphant, CSET Reader in Tort, School of Law, University of Bristol, Wills Memorial Building, Queens Road, Bristol BS8 1RJ.

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