... of clarity and consistency in the law. Legal Background Traditionally, there has been no action in tort for purely economic loss - that is, loss not consequent upon personal injury or property damage to the plaintiff. This is known as the exclusionary rule, which before the landmark House of Lords decision in Hedley Byrne was subject only to very limited exceptions.7 The exclusionary rule addresses the potential for economic loss claims to expose defendants to 'liability in an indeterminate amount for an indeterminate time to an indeterminate class.'8 The need to avoid such "indeterminacy" remains a fundamental tenet of all decisions concerning relational economic loss. The rule also has an economic rationale, in that the plaintiff's loss in this type of case is generally offset by another party's gain.9 Since this does not constitute a net economic loss to society, it is inefficient to provide damages for the losers without somehow taxing ...

See this essay or coursework document in full right now