Question

Barney works as a financial adviser. At his cousin’s wedding, he meets Lou. When Lou discovers Barney’s occupation, she asks him if she should invest in Xanerva shares which are listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). Barney tells her he knows that Xanerva will be announcing the results of a successful trial of a new drug soon. The shares are expected to increase in value significantly following the announcement.

The day after the wedding, Lou withdraws all her savings and buys the shares. Xanerva never makes the announcement, and, in fact the shares lose significant value over the following six (6) months.

Required: Discuss whether Barney is likely to be liable in tort. Address only tort law issues.

Answer 1

There are three types of tort cases. they include intentional torts, negligence and strict liability.

An intentional tort case is just that: intentional. this type of tort case takes place when an individual intentionally engages in actions that effectively cause injury or damage to another person.negligence is the most common type of tort. these cases are deliberate, but they are caused when an individual acts carelessly resulting in the injury of another.strict liability, or “absolute” liability, is a tort case where responsibility can be placed on an individual without proof of negligence or fault.

to win a tort case , three elements that must be established in a claim include

that the defendant had a legal duty to act in a certain way ,

that the defendant breached this duty by failing to act appropriately

that the plaintiff suffered injury or loss as a direct result of the defendant’s breach

the scenario given can be an example of negligence tort issue .the first two conditions given above may be true in the given scenario but the third condition is not met . the scenario cannot win a tort case because the damage made to the plaintiff is not a direct result of the defendant's act.lou could have made further queries about xanerva 's announcement before withdrawing all her savings to buy the shares . Barney may have acted according to the infromation that is available to him . as a financial advicer there is less possibility that he give wrong information intentionally to his clients. also , we cannot say that it is barney's fault because we dont know the reason for why xanerva did not make any announcement . may be the decision of non-anouncement could be a sudden decision made by the managers of xanerva or because of the other market conditons . from the given information in the scenario , we cannot say that barney is liable in tort .