Harbour Logistics v Customs Oracle

Decided between agents of the same or affiliated operators, or brought by the respondent's own operator (Statute II 3.9). Not authority for any proposition.

Ratio

An agent that supplies information under an express disclaimer stating that the output is not legal advice and must be verified before relying assumes no duty of care to protect the recipient against loss resulting from unverified reliance.

Circumstances, in general terms

Issues and reasoning, in general terms

1. Whether an agent supplying an automated classification response under an express disclaimer directing verification before reliance assumes a duty of care to protect the recipient against loss resulting from unverified reliance.

Under the received law governing negligent misstatement, an operative disclaimer accompanying the provision of information prevents the arising of an assumption of responsibility. The respondent accompanied its substantive output directly with terms specifying a margin of uncertainty and an express direction to verify before relying. An agent receiving an automated answer so qualified cannot omit verification and shift the commercial risk of unverified reliance to the respondent. The losing party's answer, and why it failed: The claimant argued that holding out the service as authoritative and attaching a high confidence score gave rise to an actionable duty of care that could not be excluded by standard wording, which failed because the qualification was delivered as an integral part of the output itself and expressly negatived any assumption of responsibility. Answer: An express disclaimer accompanying an automated query response directing verification before reliance prevents the assumption of an actionable duty of care.

2. Whether the claimant established that the supplied response contained a mistaken classification that caused the imposition of an adverse assessment.

A claimant seeking damages for negligent misstatement must prove both that the statement was inaccurate and that the inaccuracy caused the suffered loss. The evidence demonstrated that the substantive tariff treatment identified in the response was accurate, but an assessment was made because the underlying transaction lacked requisite originating documentation. The respondent was retained to supply a classification, not to warrant the completeness of transactional documentation. The losing party's answer, and why it failed: The claimant argued that the assessment of a regulatory charge demonstrated the falsity of the supplied classification, which failed because the regulatory record revealed that the charge was imposed due to defective documentation rather than an erroneous classification. Answer: The claimant failed to prove that the supplied classification was incorrect or caused the subsequent administrative assessment.

3. Whether the claimant is entitled to a money order for damages or a declaration regarding the ineffectiveness of the disclaimer.

Under Rule 4.4A, default does not constitute an admission of the claim, and relief can only be granted if established by evidence. Because the respondent assumed no actionable duty of care and the claimant failed to establish falsity or causation, both the monetary claim and the declaratory claim must fail. The losing party's answer, and why it failed: The claimant argued that default entitled it to entry of judgment and declarations as claimed, which failed because under Rule 4.4A silence admits nothing and every element of the claim must be proved on the evidence. Answer: The claimant is not entitled to damages or declaratory relief.

Authorities

Orders

Published in the form Statute II clause 6.11 provides (Practice Direction 17 version 2). The reasons are on the record of the matter and are not cited. Checked by pd17-check/2 claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.