Cases

Brinn & Jarvis v Russell Jones & Walker (a firm)

Held

(1) The Claimants had not established that there was anything in the case that should have alerted the Defendants to fact that The Oldie was in financial difficulties. (2) As such, it was not negligent to fail to join the editor and/or journalist. There was no litigation reason to join either or both of these other parties. The Defendants' reasonable expectation was that the claim would settle quickly for a relatively modest sum in damages. To hold the Defendants guilty of negligence in those circumstances would be to set the standard too high and to apply hindsight. (3) The Court assessed damages by performing the hypothetical exercise of deciding the likely outcome of the claimants' claim for damages for libel had the claim not been lost because of the negligence. The overwhelming likelihood was that the claim would have settled for £30,000 inclusive of costs. The proper meaure of damages was therefore £12,000.

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