Common LawにおけるAccountants会計責任の論理

Abstract

Public accountants have been generally held to be liable to all third party users suffering losses, for gross negligence or fraud (failure to use even slight care). If the work of the auditor is found to be for the primary benefit of the third party or, more recently, if the auditor may reasonably foresee specific uses by identifiable classes of third parties relying on his work, ordinary care may be the standard to which he is held. In meeting his required duty of care, it is now clear that the accounting profession's own standard constitute minimum acceptable behavior.