Park’s of Hamilton (Holdings) Ltd v Colin Campbell, [2008] CSOH 177
Citation: Park’s of Hamilton (Holdings) Ltd v Colin Campbell, [2008] CSOH 177
Rule of thumb: Do business advisers & agents have a duty to warn of any conflict of interest they may have? Yes, it is a misrepresentation by silence for them not to declare these.
Judgment:
Where a person acts as an adviser or a business manager for someone, then they do have an extra duty to ensure that what they are saying is accurate, rather than just merely basically correct. The facts of this case were that Parks of Hamilton were looking to buy shares in a company. The instructed Colin Campbell to act as an adviser in this matter. Campbell did not inform them that he had a financial interest in the transaction going through. Parks were able to sue Campbell on the basis of this misrepresentation which they were able to successfully argue led them to overvalue the company and overpay for the shares, "a duty of care not to make carelessly inaccurate or incomplete statements which could foreseeable mislead them and cause them economic loss". Lord Malcolm
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