The parties had contracted for sale and purchase of butane for processing. It was said to have been contaminated. The parties now disputed the effect on damages for breach including on causation, remoteness, mitigation and quantum.
Held: The recklessness of the defendant was an intervening act sufficient to affect the chain of causation.
Judges:
Gross LJ
Citations:
[2010] EWHC 2789 (Comm), [2011] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 482
Links:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – County Ltd v Girozentrale Securities CA 1996
The plaintiff bank had agreed to underwrite a share placement. The defendant brokers made representations to potential investors outside and in breach of the terms of the engagement letter. The bank failed to check on the status of indicative . .
Cited – Monarch Steamship Co Ltd v Karlshamns Oljefabriker A/B HL 1949
Damages were sought for breach of contract.
Held: After reviewing the authorities on remoteness of damage, the court reaffirmed the broad general rule that a party injured by the other’s breach of contract is entitled to such money . .
Cited – Compania Naviera Maropan S/A v Bowater’s Pulp and Paper Mills Limited (The Stork) CA 1954
Where, in breach of charterparty, charterers order a vessel to proceed to an unsafe port, the conduct of the vessel’s master in obeying the order (placed as he well may be, on the horns of a dilemma) will be judged sympathetically, in context and . .
Cited – The Polyglory 1977
Even negligent navigation following the charterer’s order to proceed to an unsafe port will not necessarily break the chain of causation as to damages. . .
Cited – Sotiros Shipping Inc v Sameiet; The Solholt CA 1983
The seller had failed to deliver the vessel he had sold by the delivery date. The buyer cancelled and requested return of his deposit, also claiming damages because the vessel was worth $500,000 more on the delivery date than she had been when the . .
Cited – British Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co v Underground Electric Railways Co (London) Limited HL 1912
The plaintiffs purchased eight steam turbines from the defendants. They later proved defective, and the plaintiffs sought damages. In the meantime they purchased replacements, more effective than the original specifications. In the result the . .
Cited – The ‘Spontaneity’ 1962
Where the negligence of vessel X caused vessel Y to run aground, vessel X was not liable for such damages as were attributable to the subsequent, clearly separate and negligent re-floating of vessel Y. The original negligence of vessel X had ceased . .
Cited – Sylvia Shipping Co Ltd v Progress Bulk Carriers Ltd (‘The Sylvia’) ComC 18-Mar-2010
. .
Cited – Czarnikow (C ) Ltd v Koufos; The Heron II HL 17-Oct-1967
The vessel had arrived late at Basrah in breach of the terms of the charterparty. The House was asked as to the measure of damages. The charterers had intended to sell the cargo of sugar promptly upon arrival, and now claimed for the fall in the . .
Cited – Barings Plc (In Liquidation) and Another, Barings Futures (Singapore) Pte Ltd (In Liquidation) v Coopers and Lybrand (A Firm) and Others, Mattar and 36 Others ChD 17-Oct-2003
BFS was a company incorporated in Singapore which conducted its internal affairs in Singapore Dollars. It was by statute required to render its accounts in that currency. It paid its staff in Singapore Dollars. It sought damages in Singapore . .
Cited – Lambert v Lewis HL 1981
A farmer was sued when a towing hitch on his Landrover came loose, releasing the trailer which then caused a serious accident. When sued for the damage, the farmer brought proceedings against the garage proprietor who supplied the towing hitch, . .
Cited – Barings Plc and Another v Coopers and Lybrand (A Firm) and Others ChD 11-Jun-2003
Evans-Lombe J expressed an unwillingness to accept any all-embracing test for what may constitute the breaking of the chain of causation, saying: ‘It seems to me that what will constitute such conduct is so fact-sensitive to the facts of any case . .
Cited – Hart v Lancashire and Yorkshire Rly Co 1869
Bramwell B said: ‘people do not furnish evidence against themselves simply by adopting a new plan in order to prevent the recurrence of an accident. I think that a proposition to the contrary would be barbarous.’ . .
Cited – The Oinoussian Friendship 1987
A claim was made for physical damage to a vessel.
Held: Where the owners take advantage of the fact that repairs are being done by having owners’ work done at the same time, and (1) the owners’ work does not extend the cost of or period of . .
Cited – Lodge Holes Colliery Company v Wednesbury Corporation HL 1908
Lord Loreburn LC said: ‘Now I think a Court of Justice ought to be very slow in countenancing any attempt by a wrong-doer to make captious objections to the methods by which those whom he has injured have sought to repair the injury. When a road is . .
Cited – Banco de Portugal v Waterlow and Sons Ltd HL 28-Apr-1932
Lord Macmillan said: ‘Where the sufferer from a breach of contract finds himself in consequence of that breach placed in position of embarrassment the measures which he may be driven to adopt in order to extricate himself ought not to be weighed in . .
Cited – Payzu Limited v Saunders CA 1919
The innocent plaintiff buyers had been found to have failed to mitigate their damages because they had not accepted an offer from the defendant sellers (who were in breach of contract) to supply goods on cash terms, the contract having originally . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Contract, Damages
Updated: 05 August 2022; Ref: scu.425822