Caparo Industries PLC v Dickman [1990] UKHL 2 is a test for a duty of care. The House of Lords, following the Court of Appeal, set out a "three-fold test". In order for a duty of care to arise in negligence: harm must be reasonably foreseeable, the parties must be in a relationship of proximity and it must be fair, just and reasonable. The question in Caparo was the scope of the assumption of responsibility, and what the limits of liability ought to be.
The majority of the Court of Appeal (Bingham LJ and Taylor LJ; O'Connor LJ dissenting) held that a duty would not be owed to an outside investor who had no shareholding.