(156)  Disappointed beneficiaries’ claims in Scots law

On 21 February 2002 Lord Kingarth held relevant a claim by a niece and nephew of a deceased person against a bank for negligence in relation to the deceased’s will, the bank having failed to execute timeoulsy the deceased’s instructions in connection with the will and and an increase in the bequests for the pursuers thereunder.  By the time the will was prepared by the bank, the deceased had been too ill to attend to her affairs (Holmes v Bank of Scotland 2002 GWD 8-269).  Lord Kingarth held that the House of Lords decision in Robertson v Fleming (1861) 4 Macq 167 was no longer binding in Scots law, following the unreported decision in Robertson v Watt & Co, 2nd Division 4 July 1995.  Scots law on the subject was no different from English law following Hedley Byrne v Heller [1964] AC 465 and White v Jones [1995] 2 AC 207.