A company director who provides negligent misstatements to a creditor of the company can owe a Hedley Byrne duty of care to that creditor, notwithstanding the general principle in Spies v The Queen that directors do not owe an independent duty to creditors by reason of their position as directors. The knowledge of directors who are sole directors of a plaintiff company will be attributed to that company for the purposes of contributory negligence. Where a professional adviser's negligence and a third party's negligent misstatements both cause a plaintiff to continue extending credit, those wrongdoers cause 'the same loss' for the purposes of the concurrent wrongdoer provisions in Part IVAA of the Wrongs Act 1958.
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