Axe Land would like to expand its business selling musical instruments. Axe has approached Big Bank to ask for a $500,000 loan to support this expansion. Big Bank requires numerous business planning and financial statement documents from Axe. The documents Axe provides indicate that Axe is in a sound financial position. These documents were prepared by Cento Accounting firm. Axe did not tell Cento that the documents would be used as part of a loan application to Big Bank. Cento routinely prepares documents that are used in loan

applications, but did not know of Axe's specific intention to seek a loan. Big Bank relies on the documents and decides to give Axe the requested loan.

Later, Big Bank discovers that Cento had failed to take into account a large judgment against Axe arising from a labour dispute. The result was that the financial documents prepared by Cento overstated Axe's worth by $10 million. This meant Axe was in fact in a poor financial position and the business expansion made the situation worse. Axe is unable to make its repayments for the $500,000 loan and defaults. As a result, Big Bank has suffered a significant loss.

Advise Big Bank whether Cento Accounting owes Big Bank a duty of care in the tort of

negligence. DO NOT discuss other elements of the tort of negligence when answering this question. Please ensure that you use relevant authority in support of your answer (ie: cases and/or legislation).

Pls answer using IRAC!