Companies and securities law

Task: This written assignment is worth 30% of the subject marks.
Discuss the law of negligence as it would apply to a company auditor.
This will require reading the following cases in order to gain an understanding of the difference between negligent acts causing physical damage and negligent statements causing economic loss. Donoghue & Stevenson [1932] AC 562 (negligent act resulting in physical injury)
Hedley Byrne& Co Ltd v Heller & Partners [1964] AC 465 (Economic suffered as a result of negligent misstatement)
MLC & Evatt (1968) 122 CLR 556
Esanda Finance Ltd v Peat Marwick Hungerfords (1997) 188 CLR 241
Perre v Apand (1999) 198 CLR 180
Do not consider any statutes.
The assignment requires independent thinking, evaluation and analysis. Merely repeating and paraphrasing sources will result in poor marks. To achieve good marks, students will need to show evidence of their analysis and evaluation of the problem.
You must not simply provide long repetitions of judgements, facts or sections. These do not show evidence of your own independent thinking at a post graduate level.

The task requires the detailed examination of a discrete area of law. This builds research, information gathering and legal writing/reporting skills.