White v Jones
Encyclopedia
White v Jones is a leading English tort law
case concerning professional negligence
and the conditions under which a person will be taken to have assumed responsibility for the welfare of another.
held with a majority of three to two in the House of Lords that the daughters would be able to claim. Influenced by the idea that solicitors may escape the consequences of not doing their job properly, he said that a special relationship existed between the daughters and the solicitor and that Mr Jones had assumed responsibility towards them. This was so even though there was no contract or fiduciary relationship between them.
English tort law
English tort law concerns civil wrongs, as distinguished from criminal wrongs, in the law of England and Wales. Some wrongs are the concern of the state, and so the police can enforce the law on the wrongdoers in court – in a criminal case...
case concerning professional negligence
Professional negligence
In the English law of tort, professional negligence is a subset of the general rules on negligence to cover the situation in which the defendant has represented him or herself as having more than average skills and abilities. The usual rules rely on establishing that a duty of care is owed by the...
and the conditions under which a person will be taken to have assumed responsibility for the welfare of another.
Facts
Two daughters of 78 year old Mr White sued Mr Jones for failing to follow their father's instructions when drawing up his will. Mr White and his daughters had fallen out briefly and he asked the solicitor to cut them out of the will. Before he died they resolved their problems. He asked Mr Jones to change the will again so that £9000 would be given to his daughters. After he died, with the will still the same, the family would not agree to have the settlement changed. The question was whether Mr Jones could be sued instead.Judgment
Lord GoffRobert Goff, Baron Goff of Chieveley
Robert Lionel Archibald Goff, Baron Goff of Chieveley PC DCL FBA is a retired British Judge.Lord Goff, High Steward of the University of Oxford, retired in 1998 as Senior Law Lord after more than a decade as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in the House of Lords...
held with a majority of three to two in the House of Lords that the daughters would be able to claim. Influenced by the idea that solicitors may escape the consequences of not doing their job properly, he said that a special relationship existed between the daughters and the solicitor and that Mr Jones had assumed responsibility towards them. This was so even though there was no contract or fiduciary relationship between them.
See also
- Ross v Caunters [1980] Ch 297, Megarry VC held that a solicitor could be held liable to a disappointed beneficiary if the will turned out to be invalid.