Is it grossly negligent to leave a client's documents in a taxi? Or is it merely negligent? This was the question that faced our lawyers last Thursday. Now this might seem like a silly question, but we regularly argue with our clients about whether the bank will be liable in situations where we have been negligent or only where we have been grossly negligent.
Of course it's pretty unusual for us to be negligent at all, but now and again someone accidentally sends a letter to the wrong address or leaves a client's file in a taxi.
Ordinarily, this wouldn't amount to anything except that in this case the next passenger in this taxi picked up the folder and phoned the name on the top of the first page. This name was the client's, and not ours, so our client had the unpleasant experience of hearing from a stranger that his file had been left in a taxi. nyone in his position would have reacted in exactly the manner that he did. He phoned me.
'Alan, what the hell are you guys doing I've just been handed your file on my company, by a complete stranger who found it in a taxi. I can't believe this.'
'What a relief,' I blurted out. Probably not the most appropriate thing to say, but the team had just spent the last 20 minutes trying to locate the file through a series of unproductive phone calls to disinterested taxi operators. The file having been found was good news, although it obviously would have been preferable for us to have found it rather than the client.
'A relief? This is gross, gross negligence on your part, Alan. I must say I'm astounded by your attitude.'