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A QUESTION OF ETHICS
  Crawford, a certified public accountant, prepared a financial statement for Erps Construction Co, which was seeking a loan from First National Bank of Bluefield. Crawford knew at the time he prepared the statement that the bank would rely on the statement in making its decision on whether to extend credit to Erps. The bank later sued Crawford, alleging that he had been pro-fessionally negligent in preparing the financial statement, upon which the bank had relied in determining whether to give the construction company a loan. Crawford defended against the suit by asserting that he could not be liable to the bank because of lack of privity. The trial court ruled that in the absence of contractual privity between the parties, the bank could not recover from the accountant. On appeal, the appellate court adopted the rule enunciated by the Re-statement (Second) of Torts in regard to a professional's liability to third parties.

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