The court was asked whether, where a party loses mental capacity in the course of proceedings, such loss of capacity has the automatic and immediate effect of terminating their solicitor’s retainer. The Costs judge had held that, as a matter of law, a supervening incapacity even if intermittent, automatically frustrates and thereby terminates a contract of retainer.
Held: The Conditional Fee Agreement remained effective. The termination of a solicitor’s authority by reason of mental incapacity did not, in itself, frustrate the underlying contract of retainer.
Phillips J
[2014] EWHC 168 (QB), [2014] 2 Costs LR 320, (2014) 138 BMLR 30, [2014] 1 WLR 2683, [2014] 2 All ER 1104, [2014] WLR(D) 14
Bailii, WLRD
Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 44(6)
England and Wales
Citing:
Applied – Lauritzen A/A v Wijsmuller BV;( ‘The Super Servant Two’) CA 12-Oct-1989
Bingham LJ discussed the nature of frustration of contract: ‘The essence of frustration is that it is caused by some unforeseen supervening event over which the parties to the contract have no control and for which they are therefore not . .
Cited – Bank Line Ltd v Arthur Capel and Co HL 12-Dec-1918
The defendant ship-owners contracted to lease the ship on charter to the plaintiffs. Before the term, the ship was requisitioned for the war effort. The plaintiffs did not exercise the contractual right given to them to cancel the charterparty. The . .
Cited by:
Appeal from – Blankley v Central Manchester and Manchester Children’s University Hospitals NHS Trust CA 27-Jan-2015
This case concerns a claimant with fluctuating capacity to conduct legal proceedings. At a time when she had capacity, she retained a firm of solicitors under a conditional fee agreement. The issue was whether the CFA terminated automatically by . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Legal Professions, Costs, Health, Contract
Updated: 29 November 2021; Ref: scu.521121