The defendant had agreed to buy copper to be delivered in England by the plaintiff. The defendant refused to accept the copper and so was liable in damages to the plaintiff. The defendant, a French company, was placed in judicial liquidation in France and it was assumed that as a matter of French law, the defendant was discharged from its liability in damages.
Held: Lord Esher MR said that French law was irrelevant because it was ‘not a law of the country to which the contract belongs, or one by which the contracting parties can be taken to have agreed to be bound; it is the law of another country by which they have not agreed to be bound.’
Judges:
Lord Esher MR, Lindley and Lopes LJJ
Citations:
(1890) 25 QBD 399, [1890] UKLawRpKQB 117
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Approved – Adams v National Bank of Greece HL 1961
Questions of interpretation and enforcement of contracts are resolved by reference to the proper law. Although debt under a contract whose proper law is the law of another jurisdiction may, for the purposes of Scots law, be discharged by insolvency . .
Applied – New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company Limited v Christina Morrison PC 15-Dec-1897
(Victoria) . .
Cited – Global Distressed Alpha Fund 1 Ltd Partnership v Pt Bakrie Investindo ComC 17-Feb-2011
Action on an instrument of guarantee.
Held: judgment for the Claimant in respect of the principal sum of US$2m. and such interest payments as were due. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Contract, International
Updated: 12 September 2022; Ref: scu.512187