The more embryonic is an oral ‘agreement’, the less likely it is that the parties intended to create legal relations at that stage. For there to be an agreement formed by conduct, there must be a course of dealing from which a contract is necessarily to be implied because the conduct in question is only referable to a contract as opposed to a desire to obtain one. On a strike-out claim it is the duty of the court to apply English law ‘as it now stands’. Judge LJ said: ‘However settled the law may appear to be, one of its strengths is that the possibility of development or change remains. In my view, even for the purposes of CPR 24.2, we must apply the law as it is, not as it may possibly one day become.’
Judges:
Judge LJ, Mance LJ
Citations:
[2001] CLC 999, [2002] 1 All ER (Comm) 737, [2001] EWCA Civ 274
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Kilcarne Holdings Ltd v Targetfollow (Birmingham) Ltd, Targetfollow Group Ltd ChD 9-Nov-2004
The defendant entered into an agreement for lease, incurring substantial obligations. When it could not meet them it sought assistance from the claimant, who now claimed to have an interest in a joint venture. The draft documentation originally . .
Cited – Smithkline Beecham Plc Glaxosmithkline UK Ltd and Another v Apotex Europe Ltd and others (No 2) CA 23-May-2006
The parties to the action had given cross undertakings to support the grant of an interim injunction. A third party subsequently applied to be joined, and now sought to take advantage of the cross undertakings to claim the losses incurred through . .
Cited – Aitken v Standard Life Assurance Ltd SCS 3-Dec-2008
The pursuer averred that the defendant, his pension provider, had wrongfully reduced its final bonus by ten per cent without notifying him. He sought to imply a term into the contract to provide such an effect, saying that the contract promised an . .
Cited – MSM Consulting Ltd v United Republic of Tanzania QBD 30-Jan-2009
The claimants sought commission or a quantum meruit for the part they had taken in finding a suitable site for the defendant’s High Commission in London.
Held: The works undertaken were consistent with the claimant seeking work from the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Contract
Updated: 27 June 2022; Ref: scu.219433