SAPPINGTON & SAPPINGTON

In *Sappington & Sappington*, the Supreme Court of Victoria was asked to determine whether a party had breached their duty of care to another by failing to disclose certain information during property settlement negotiations. The dispute arose from a property transaction where one party alleged that the other had failed to disclose material facts that would have influenced their decision to proceed with the settlement on the agreed terms.

The central legal issue before Baumann J was whether the defendant owed a duty of care to the plaintiff in the context of pre-contractual negotiations for the sale of property, and if so, whether that duty had been breached by the non-disclosure of specific information. The court was required to consider the nature of the relationship between the parties and the extent of any obligations arising from that relationship at the time of the alleged misrepresentation or omission.

Baumann J applied established principles of the law of negligence and contract. The court considered whether the circumstances created a special relationship of proximity giving rise to a duty of care, particularly in the context of a vendor's duty to disclose latent defects or other material information that might not be discoverable by a reasonable purchaser. The judge analysed the evidence to determine if the non-disclosed information was indeed material and if the defendant knew or ought to have known of its materiality and the plaintiff's ignorance of it. The court ultimately found that no duty of care had been breached in this instance, as the information in question was either not material or was discoverable by the plaintiff through reasonable diligence.