Liability for bad advice

Lennon v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis CA TLR 25 February

The claimant, an officer with the Metropolitan Police, successfully applied to join the police service of Northern Ireland. He sought advice about his transfer from a police personnel executive officer in London. In reply to his specific enquiry he was informed that his housing allowance entitlement would not be affected by his taking time off work during the course of his transfer. He in fact took three weeks off work which resulted in a break in his continuity of service, and on taking up his new position he permanently lost entitlement to a monthly housing allowance of £134. The Court of Appeal upheld his claim in negligence against the commissioner arising from the manner in which his transfer was handled and upheld the award of some £44,000 damages. The general principles governing the existence of a duty of care not to cause pure economic loss to another by careless acts or omissions are well established, and the commissioner was wrong in suggesting that the decision broke new ground involving a radical departure from the existing law. Although there was no contract of employment between the police commissioner and the claimant, the relationship between them was analogous to that created by such a contract; it was fair, just and reasonable to impose on the police commissioner a general duty of care to give advice to the claimant to protect him from economic loss.