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Jan 16, 2024
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d. a. t. green's avatar

Please no national stereotypes on this blog.

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Christopher's avatar

What about the post masters suing Fujitsu? Might be necessary if Post Office goes into liquidation unless the Government covers all losses by way of compensation.

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d. a. t. green's avatar

No obvious legal claim, either in contract or tort.

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Christopher's avatar

Contract clearly not, but in the tort of negligence.

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d. a. t. green's avatar

(1) You can rarely claim for pure economic loss for negligence.

(2) Fujitsu unlikely to have a duty of care, at law, to the post masters/mistresses.

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Andrew Wood's avatar

It’s only worth suing people who have the money to pay up. Seems quite a few of the senior people at POL were awarded nice fat bonuses over many years. So there’s that.

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d. a. t. green's avatar

Or have the insurance in place.

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Andrew Wood's avatar

?Crown indemnity...

That is presumably a liability for the tax payer though, ultimately.

Do senior execs take out personal liability insurance that they pay for out of their own pockets?

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d. a. t. green's avatar

It would be worth looking at - and ditto any external advisers.

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igtretd's avatar

I'd be interested in your views about this from an FT article on an attempt to deny Fujitsu future contracts in the early 2010s:

'The push was ultimately unsuccessful after government lawyers advised that it would not be legally possible to discriminate against companies based on their past performance, the officials said.'

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Colin Fleming's avatar

It might not change the outcome, but I'd have thought that a large-scale IT contract would be executed as a deed and have a 12-year limitation period. Certainly large-scale construction contracts usually have a 12-year limitation period and, in some cases, even longer.

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d. a. t. green's avatar

Unless there is a land law (as you say construction law) element, it is rare for an IT agreement to be executed as a Deed.

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Simon Day's avatar

I'd much prefer that POL used it's extensive experience and brought some private prosecutions for attempts to pervert the course if justice against their former staff

Even if the evidence isn't there to make it the case, based on their historic practice, I don't see why that should stop them

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d. a. t. green's avatar

Those further wrongs would not make it right!

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Nick Taylor's avatar

There should be proper criminal charges brought against those who knowingly destroyed so many lives.

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Colin Fleming's avatar

Thank you for the reply. I wasn't aware that it is rare for IT agreements to be executed as a deed.

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d. a. t. green's avatar

I do not know the exact reason, but insurance is an issue for many high-value commercial contracts even with six-years limitation.

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