Catchwords:

NEGLIGENCE – causation – professional negligence – where contract for sale of land provided for 5-year deferred settlement and life estate in favour of vendor – where purchaser did not complete on completion date and vendor died two days later – sale contract subsequently rescinded by vendor’s legal representative – where solicitor found to have breached duty of care by failing to identify difficulties with grant of a legal life estate over a portion only of unsubdivided land but primary judge found no loss caused by that breach – whether primary judge erred in concluding that appellants did not discharge their onus of establishing that any negotiations with vendor prior to exchange of contracts in 2012 would likely have resulted in vendor agreeing not to require a life estate – whether primary judge erred in concluding that problem with life estate played no part in the purchaser’s failure to complete in 2017 and was thus not causative of loss – appeal dismissed.