The third category covers cases in which the defendant is in breach of a contractual duty which is capable of giving rise to liability in the tort of negligence. In these circumstances, it seems to be accepted that the defence is applicable. Thus, where loss is caused by the professional negligence of a solicitor or valuer, but the client is in part to blame for that loss, it will be possible to reduce the claimant’s damages, whether the action is framed in contract or in tort. For the purposes of all of the above categories, there is one overriding difficulty, namely that the definition of the claimant’s fault in s 4 requires the defence to have been available at common law before the 1945 Act was passed. However, it remains the case that, at common law, the defence was

DOI link for The third category covers cases in which the defendant is in breach of a contractual duty which is capable of giving rise to liability in the tort of negligence. In these circumstances, it seems to be accepted that the defence is applicable. Thus, where loss is caused by the professional negligence of a solicitor or valuer, but the client is in part to blame for that loss, it will be possible to reduce the claimant’s damages, whether the action is framed in contract or in tort. For the purposes of all of the above categories, there is one overriding difficulty, namely that the definition of the claimant’s fault in s 4 requires the defence to have been available at common law before the 1945 Act was passed. However, it remains the case that, at common law, the defence was

The third category covers cases in which the defendant is in breach of a contractual duty which is capable of giving rise to liability in the tort of negligence. In these circumstances, it seems to be accepted that the defence is applicable. Thus, where loss is caused by the professional negligence of a solicitor or valuer, but the client is in part to blame for that loss, it will be possible to reduce the claimant’s damages, whether the action is framed in contract or in tort. For the purposes of all of the above categories, there is one overriding difficulty, namely that the definition of the claimant’s fault in s 4 requires the defence to have been available at common law before the 1945 Act was passed. However, it remains the case that, at common law, the defence was