T.E. Potterton Ltd v. Northern Bank Ltd

The said cheque was presented for payment by the plaintiff to its own bank, Ulster Bank Ltd., on the 4th December, 1985, and was sent on for clearance to the defendant but was returned by the defendant on the 9th December, 1985, marked "Refer to Drawer Present Again Alteration req's drawer's conf." (being shorthand for "Alteration requires drawer's confirmation").

This, in my opinion, brings the case within the four walls of the type of situation envisaged in the last paragraphs quoted from the speech of Lord Reid in Hedley Byrne & Co. Ltd. v. Keller & Partners Ltd. [1964] AC. 465 (assuming it is still necessary to do so), where his lordship deals with the three options open to a reasonable man volunteering information or advice to another person in the knowledge that his skill and judgment were being relied on and that the other person was trusting him to exercise such a degree of care as the circumstances required.

This conveys to me that when individual creditors took an aggressive line with the debtor there were occasions when they would accompany Mr. McMahon to the bank when he was making a lodgment and make sure they got payment there and then, thus getting in ahead of the remaining body of creditors who were left without any remedy when the company finally went to the wall.