InvercargillCity Council v Hamlin [1996] AC 624

Plaintiff employed X to build a house and the local council’s inspector, Defendant, failed to point out defective foundations.

These were discovered when Plaintiff called in an expert and Plaintiff sued Defendant for the cost of repairs.

Privy Council conceded that the NZ law, unlike English courts, does impose a duty of care on inspectors and upheld the verdict that Plaintiff could not have discovered the defects reasonably before calling in the expert and therefore his cause of action accrued from this moment.

There were no special limitations in NZ law on economic loss.