Sayers v Clarke Walker (2002) EWCA Civ 910
Citation:Sayers v Clarke Walker (2002) EWCA Civ 910
Rule of thumb 1:What is the fundamental legal duty of an accountant? They have to provide the best tax structure for an agreement (how to best deduct it as an expense of the business or pay it up in instalments etc), however, they have no duty to provide advice on the price being paid.
Rule of thumb 2:What happens if you miss a deadline to make an appeal? If it is not too late, and you have a reasonable prospect of success, then the Court should allow it. This is not as strictly enforced as missing a time-bar deadline to raise the case.
Judgment:
Accountants must advise their clients on what is fundamentally the right structure and schedule to use for their tax returns. Failure to do this properly is negligence, ‘On the other hand, he found that their retainer had been wide enough to cover advice on a tax structure for the transaction they should have advised him to use, and that their failure to give him any such advice was negligent and sounded in damages’, Brooke LJ
Ratio-decidendi:
‘[I]n cases where the arguments for granting or refusing an extension of time were otherwise evenly balanced, a court will have to evaluate the merits of the proposed appeal in order to form a judgment on what the defendants will be losing if time is not extended . . The consequences of the new requirement for permission to appeal is that if other factors militate towards the refusal of an extension of time, the likely prospects of success will have to be weighed in the balance. In other words the consequence of the appellants’ failure to comply with the rule will be more serious for them if the court thinks that it is more probable than not that their appeal will succeed if it is allowed to proceed than if its prospects of success are smaller, even though they just pass the threshold at which it can be said that they are ‘real’ rather than fanciful.’
Warning: This is not professional legal advice. This is not professional legal education advice. Please obtain professional guidance before embarking on any legal course of action. This is just an interpretation of a Judgment by persons of legal insight & varying levels of legal specialism, experience & expertise. Please read the Judgment yourself and form your own interpretation of it with professional assistance.