PricewaterhouseCoopers Legal v Perpetual Trustees Victoria Limited & 3 Ors

This case concerned an appeal and cross-appeal before the Court of Appeal of New South Wales, involving PricewaterhouseCoopers Legal (PWC) and Perpetual Trustees Victoria Limited (Perpetual) as primary parties, along with other respondents. The dispute centred on issues of real property, specifically whether manufactured homes situated on a manufactured home estate were fixtures or chattels, and claims in negligence against PWC for alleged failures in land valuations and investigations concerning the nature of the estate. Perpetual also alleged breaches of duty by PWC in failing to advise against a loan transaction due to the inability to ascertain the legal consequences of the estate's status, and raised issues of contributory negligence and failure to mitigate damages.

The court was required to determine several key legal issues. Firstly, it had to consider whether the legislative scheme governing manufactured homes on estates precluded such dwellings from being fixtures, and how the intention of the parties interacted with this scheme. Secondly, the court had to assess whether PWC breached its duty of care to Perpetual by failing to qualify its land valuations and conduct adequate investigations into the nature of the manufactured home estate. Thirdly, the court examined whether any such breach of duty by PWC was causative of Perpetual's loss, and whether Perpetual was contributorily negligent or had failed to mitigate its damages.

The Court of Appeal's reasoning focused significantly on the apportionment of liability between PWC and another party, Casey, for Perpetual's damages. The court upheld PWC's appeal concerning this apportionment, setting aside the trial judge's orders and ordering that liability between PWC and Casey be apportioned equally (50/50) for both Perpetual's damages and the costs of the proceedings below. The court also addressed costs orders, with PWC ordered to pay the costs of appeal of Perpetual and Interstar, Casey ordered to pay Perpetual's costs of the cross-appeal, and Casey ordered to pay PWC's costs relating to the apportionment issue and cross-claims against Bettaway. PWC's appeal was otherwise dismissed, and Casey's cross-appeal was also dismissed.