Category: Damages

RK and MK v Oldham NHS Trust: 2003

Apprehension, fear and discomfort are not generally compensatable.

Judges:

Simon J

Citations:

[2003] Lloyds Rep Med 1

Cited by:

Appeal from – JD, MAK and RK, RK and Another v East Berkshire Community Health, Dewsbury Health Care NHS Trust and Kirklees Metropolitan Council, Oldham NHS Trust and Dr Blumenthal CA 31-Jul-2003
Damages were sought by parents for psychological harm against health authorities for the wrongful diagnosis of differing forms of child abuse. They appealed dismissal of their awards on the grounds that it was not ‘fair just and reasonable’ to . .
Cited – AD and OH (A Child) v Bury Metropolitan Borough Council CA 17-Jan-2006
The claimants, mother and son, sought damages from the respondent after they had commenced care proceedings resulting in the son being taken into temporary care. The authority had wrongly suspected abuse. The boy was later found to suffer brittle . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Professional Negligence, Damages

Updated: 14 May 2022; Ref: scu.238720

Oswald v Countrywide Surveyors Ltd: 1996

The evidential burden of establishing betterment is on the defendant.

Citations:

(1996) 50 Con LR 1

Cited by:

Cited – Pegler Ltd v Wang (UK) Ltd TCC 25-Feb-2000
Standard Conract – Wide Exclusions, Apply 1977 Act
The claimant had acquired a computer system from the defendant, which had failed. It was admitted that the contract had been broken, and the court set out to decide the issue of damages.
Held: Even though Wang had been ready to amend one or . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Construction, Damages

Updated: 14 May 2022; Ref: scu.238588

Australian Consolidated Press Ltd v Uren: 2 Jun 1966

(High Court of Australia)

Citations:

(1966) 117 CLR 185, [1966] HCA 37

Links:

Austlii

Jurisdiction:

Australia

Citing:

Cited – Rookes v Barnard (No 1) HL 21-Jan-1964
The court set down the conditions for the award of exemplary damages. There are two categories. The first is where there has been oppressive or arbitrary conduct by a defendant. Cases in the second category are those in which the defendant’s conduct . .

Cited by:

Appeal from – Australian Consolidated Press Limited v Uren PC 24-Jul-1967
The Board declined to interfere with the decision of the High Court of Australia not to review its jurisprudence on exemplary damages: ‘[I]n a sphere of law where its policy calls for decision and where its policy in a particular country is . .
Cited – W v W; J v Raewyn Bell PC 19-Jan-1999
PC (New Zealand) The claimants sught to recover exemplary damages from defendants convicted of criminal offences against them.
Held: There were differences in the system between New Zealand and the English . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Defamation, Damages

Updated: 14 May 2022; Ref: scu.237241

Commonwealth of Australia v WMC Resources Ltd: 1998

A permit to explore for petroleum may be ‘property’ for the purposes of compulsory acquisition.

Citations:

(1998) 194 CLR 1

Cited by:

Cited – Ultraframe (UK) Ltd v Fielding and others ChD 27-Jul-2005
The parties had engaged in a bitter 95 day trial in which allegations of forgery, theft, false accounting, blackmail and arson. A company owning patents and other rights had become insolvent, and the real concern was the destination and ownership of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Commonwealth

Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.230287

Appleby v Ireland: 1978

‘the multiplier that has come to be regarded as fair and reasonable as between a dispossessed trader and an acquiring authority is 3YP of ascertained net profit, assuming the business to have been trading at a steady level of profitability and from its own freehold premises’.

Citations:

[1978] RVR 156

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Halil v London Borough of Lambeth LT 2-Mar-2001
LT COMPENSATION – compulsory acquisition of leasehold shop and premises – total extinguishment of business – disturbance – analysis of accounts – treatment of wife’s earnings – depreciation of capital assets – . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Damages

Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.230993

Bell v Todd: 2001

Citations:

[2001] All ER (D) 348

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – A v The Archbishop of Birmingham QBD 30-Jun-2005
Assessment of damages following child abuse by Catholic priest.
Held: General damages of andpound;50,000 were in line with Coxon and were approved. A had not been shown to be, and is not, incapable of managing his affairs. The court differed . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury, Damages

Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.228419

Haggar v de Placido: 1972

andpound;13,500.00 was awarded for pain and suffering and loss of amenities for a case involving severe disablement.

Citations:

[1972] 1 WLR 716

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Cunningham v Harrison CA 17-May-1973
The plaintiff had been severely injured, and would need nursing care for the rest of his life. His wife nursed him until her death, but had given a statement that if not for her two full time nurses would be required. His employer continued to pay . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury, Damages

Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.225262

Gammell v Wilson; Furness v Massey: HL 1982

In each case, the deceased, died as a result of the defendants’ negligence. The parents claimed damages for themselves as dependants under the 1976 Act, and for the estate under the 1934 Act. The claims under the 1976 Act were held to have been extinguished by the awards under the 1934 Act. Each award included a sum for loss of future earnings. The defendant insurers appealed.
Held: The causes of action for both deceased included, immediately before the deaths, a claim for loss of future earnings. Such a claim was not precluded by 1(2)(c) of the 1934 Act. It cannot normally be an abuse of process to enforce an express statutory entitlement. The House recognised the difficulties in awarding damages where a deceased plaintiff’s dependents were not his heirs.

Citations:

[1982] AC 27, [1981] 2 WLR 248, (1981) 125 SJ 116, [1981] 1 All ER 578

Statutes:

Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1934 1(1) 1(2)(c), Fatal Accidents Act 1976

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – Gammell v Wilson; Furness v Massey HL 1980
Lord Diplock set out the method of assessment of damages for lost years: ‘Here was an obvious injustice which this House remedied by overruling Oliver v. Ashman [1962] 2 Q.B. 210 and holding that a living plaintiff could recover damages for loss of . .
Applied – Pickett v British Rail Engineering HL 2-Nov-1978
Lost Earnings claim Continues after Death
The claimant, suffering from mesothelioma, had claimed against his employers and won, but his claim for loss of earnings consequent upon his anticipated premature death was not allowed. He began an appeal, but then died. His personal representatives . .

Cited by:

Cited – Gregg v Scott HL 27-Jan-2005
The patient saw his doctor and complained about a lump under his arm. The doctor failed to diagnose cancer. It was nine months before treatment was begun. The claimant sought damages for the reduction in his prospects of disease-free survival for . .
Cited – Knauer v Ministry of Justice SC 24-Feb-2016
The court was asked: ‘whether the current approach to assessing the financial losses suffered by the dependant of a person who is wrongfully killed properly reflects the fundamental principle of full compensation, and if it does not whether we . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.222515

Chandris v Isbrandtsen-Moller Co Inc: CA 1950

Although section 3(1) of the 1934 Act expressly empowered only courts of record to include interest in sums for which judgment was given for damages or debt, arbitrators were nevertheless empowered by the agreement of reference to apply English law, including so much of that law as is to be found in the section. The Hague Rules were designed to achieve a part harmonisation of the diverse laws of trading nations. It achieved this by regulating freedom to contract on certain topics only.
Devlin J said: ‘A rule of construction cannot be more than a guide to enable the court to arrive at the true meaning of the parties.’

Judges:

Devlin J

Citations:

[1951] 1 KB 240, (1950) 2 All ER 618, (1950) 84 Lloyds Rep 347

Statutes:

Hague-Visby Rules, Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1934 3(1)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Jindal Iron and Steel Co Ltd and others v Islamic Solidarity Shipping Company Jordan Inc (‘The Jordan II’) HL 25-Nov-2004
Cargo was damaged by rough handling during loading and/or discharging, and/or inadequate stowage due to failure to provide dunnage, failure to secure the coils and/or stacking them so that the bottom layers were excessively compressed. The House was . .
Cited – Jindal Iron and Steel Co Ltd and others v Islamic Solidarity Shipping Company Jordan Inc (‘The Jordan II’) HL 25-Nov-2004
Cargo was damaged by rough handling during loading and/or discharging, and/or inadequate stowage due to failure to provide dunnage, failure to secure the coils and/or stacking them so that the bottom layers were excessively compressed. The House was . .
Cited – Cosco Bulk Carrier Co Ltd and Another v M/V ‘Saldanha’ C/P Dated 25/06/08 ComC 11-Jun-2010
The court considered the effect of a ship being taken by pirates at sea on the obligations in the charterparty contract. The insurers said that a claim for ‘average accident’ must include an element of physical damage – absent in this case.
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Transport, Contract

Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.219886

Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers (1900) Ltd v Houlder Brothers and Co Ltd: 1917

A vessel was delayed in sailing and torpedoed on 25 May 1916. It would not have been torpedoed if it had made the same voyage two or three days earlier.
Held: The claim failed. There was no cuasative link.

Citations:

(1917) 86 LJKB 1495

Cited by:

Cited – Chester v Afshar HL 14-Oct-2004
The claimant suffered back pain for which she required neurosurgery. The operation was associated with a 1-2% risk of the cauda equina syndrome, of which she was not warned. She went ahead with the surgery, and suffered that complication. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.216516

Huckle v Money: 1763

An action for false imprisonment brought by a journeyman printer who apparently had played no part in printing the famous issue No. 45 of ‘The North Briton ‘ but had been arrested under a warrant issued by a Secretary of State authorising a King’s messenger to arrest the authors, printers and publishers of that issue (without naming or identifying any of them), to seize all their papers and to bring them before the Secretary of State to be examined by him.
Held: The court made an award of exemplary damages of andpound;300.

Citations:

(1763) 2 Wil’s KB 205, [1799] EngR 225, (1799) 2 Wils KB 205, (1799) 95 ER 768

Links:

Commonlii

Cited by:

Cited – Rookes v Barnard (No 1) HL 21-Jan-1964
The court set down the conditions for the award of exemplary damages. There are two categories. The first is where there has been oppressive or arbitrary conduct by a defendant. Cases in the second category are those in which the defendant’s conduct . .
Cited – Watkins v Secretary of State for The Home Departmentand others CA 20-Jul-2004
The claimant complained that prison officers had abused the system of reading his solicitor’s correspondence whilst he was in prison. The defendant argued that there was no proof of damage.
Held: Proof of damage was not necessary in the tort . .
Cited – Regina v Inland Revenue Commissioners ex parte Rossminster Ltd HL 13-Dec-1979
The House considered the power of an officer of the Board of Inland Revenue to seize and remove materials found on premises which a warrant obtained on application to the Common Serjeant authorised him to enter and search; but where the source of . .
Cited – Thakrar v The Secretary of State for Justice Misc 31-Dec-2015
County Court sitting at Milton Keynes. The claimant prisoner sought damages saying that his personal property had been damaged whilst in the care of the defendant.
Held: The claims succeeded in part. Some damage was deliberate. There was a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.199943

Goulandris Bros v Goldmann and Sons: 1958

An insurance clause ensuring ‘loss or damage in connexion with the goods’ under the Hague Rules for carriage of goods by sea includes economic loss even in the absence of such physical damage.

Judges:

Pearson J

Citations:

[1958] 1 QB 74

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Pilkington United Kingdom Limited v CGU Insurance Plc QBD 28-Jan-2004
The claimants had installed glass tiles in a roof. They fractured, and facing a claim for damages, they sought payment from their insurers. The claimants argued that the risk of fracture meant that the damage occurred upon installation, the insurers . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Transport, Damages

Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.198320

In re the Oropesa: CA 1943

Two steam vessels collided. One’s Master sent fifty of his crew in boats to the other ship and about an hour and a half after the collision decided himself to go to that ship and confer with her Master on measures to be taken. He transferred in another lifeboat, which he embarked with sixteen men. The weather was rough and before the lifeboat could reach the other ship it capsized and sank with nine of the occupants drowning. The badly damaged vessel subsequently sank and its owners sued the owners of the other ship. In addition, the parents of one of the deceased sailors joined as plaintiffs. They recovered against the other shipowners. It was argued that the drowning was not caused by the collision and therefore no liability should ensue.
Held: The plea failed: ‘If the master and the deceased in the present case had done something which was outside the exigencies of the emergency, whether from miscalculation or from error, the plaintiffs would be debarred from saying that a new cause had not intervened. The question is not whether there was new negligence, but whether there was a new cause. I think that is what Lord Sumner emphasized in The Paludina. To break the chain of causation it must be shown that there is something which I will call ultroneous, something unwarrantable, a new cause which disturbs the sequence of events, something which can be described as either unreasonable or extraneous or extrinsic.’ They were not prepared to say that in all the circumstances the fact that the deceased’s death was due to his leaving the ship in the lifeboat and its unexpected capsizing prevented it from be a direct consequence of the casualty.

Judges:

Lord Wright

Citations:

[1943] P 32

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – South Australia Asset Management Corporation v York Montague Ltd etc HL 24-Jun-1996
Limits of Damages for Negligent Valuations
Damages for negligent valuations are limited to the foreseeable consequences of advice, and do not include losses arising from a general fall in values. Valuation is seldom an exact science, and within a band of figures valuers may differ without . .
Cited – Green and Another v Alexander Johnson (A Firm) and Another ChD 26-May-2004
The judgment related to the assessment of damages for professional negligence by the defendants. The court deprecated the practice of separating off assessments of damages from the principal claim, since this created a risk of confusion. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Transport

Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.197925

Cowan v National Coal Board: 1958

An employee of the defenders suffered an injury to his eye in the course of his employment. He became nervous and depressed and committed suicide about four months after the accident. His widow and children sought damages from the National Coal Board for his death.
Held: The House assoilized the defenders on the ground that the employee’s suicide was not reasonably foreseeable.
Lord Cameron: ‘I think that the true test of whether the death of the deceased was caused by the negligence of the defenders is whether the death naturally and directly arose out of the supposed wrong done to him and was therefore such a consequence as might reasonably be supposed to have been in the view of the wrongdoer. This introduces the idea of foreseeability, but it is the foreseeability of the ‘reasonable man’ – an impersonal test and one not dependent on the actual wrongdoer’s own capacity for foresight.’ and ‘Now in the present case if it were held to be established that the deceased had received a comparatively moderate injury through the negligence of the defenders and had thereafter had become depressed and worried because of fear for his future working capacity or physical health and then had committed suicide under the influence of such depression and worry no doubt it might be inferred that the suicide was consequent upon that injury and the result of it, in the sense that but for the injury the suicide would in all probability not have occurred, but it does not follow that such a result could properly be described in the ordinary course of language as the ‘natural and direct’ result of the initial injury so as to make the delinquent liable in damages to the dependents of the deceased for the suicide. In the present case not only is there no proof of injury to the skull or brain but there is no physical connection between the initial injury (assuming it to have been caused by the defender’s negligence and the assumed suicide.’

Judges:

Lord Cameron

Citations:

1958 SLT 19

Jurisdiction:

Scotland

Citing:

Applied – In re Polemis and Furness, Withy and Co CA 1921
There was an exception in a time Charterparty for ‘fire . . always mutually accepted.’
Held: These words were not sufficient to exclude damage caused by a fire due to the negligent act of stevedores (the charterers’ agents) in the course of . .
Applied – Allan v Barclay IHCS 1864
Lord Kinloch said: ‘The grand rule on the subject of damages is, that none can be claimed except such as naturally and directly arise out of the wrong done; and such, therefore, as may reasonably be supposed to have been in the view of the . .

Cited by:

Cited – Simmons v British Steel plc HL 29-Apr-2004
The claimant was injured at work as a consequence of the defender’s negligence. His injuries became more severe, and he came to suffer a disabling depression.
Held: the Inner House had been wrong to characterise the Outer House decision as . .
Cited – Corr v IBC Vehicles Ltd CA 31-Mar-2006
The deceased had suffered a head injury whilst working for the defendant. In addition to severe physical consequences he suffered post-traumatic stress, became more and more depressed, and then committed suicide six years later. The claimant . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Negligence, Damages

Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.196529

Reavis v Clan Line Steamers Ltd: 1925

The pursuer was travelling as a passenger on a vessel which sank after colliding with another vessel while on passage from Glasgow to Dublin. It was common ground that she was entitled to damages for the personal injuries which she sustained and any loss attributable to her disability. But she sought also to recover loss due to the fact that some members of an orchestra which she had formed were drowned and others injured, resulting in the disbandment of the orchestra and the loss to her of what had been a profitable enterprise.
Held: Applying the grand rule, while the members of the orchestra had a right of action for their own personal injuries and losses, no action lay at the pursuer’s instance for the loss which she had sustained due to the loss of their services.

Citations:

1925 SC 725

Cited by:

Cited – Simmons v British Steel plc HL 29-Apr-2004
The claimant was injured at work as a consequence of the defender’s negligence. His injuries became more severe, and he came to suffer a disabling depression.
Held: the Inner House had been wrong to characterise the Outer House decision as . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Scotland, Negligence, Damages

Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.196523

Cooper v Caledonian Railway Co: 1902

Recovery of damages for psychiatric injury.

Citations:

(1902) 4 F 880

Jurisdiction:

Scotland

Citing:

Cited – Dulieu v White and Sons KBD 1901
A pregnant barmaid suffered nervous shock causing her to give premature birth as a result of the tortfeasor’s horse van bursting into her bar at the Bonner Arms in Bethnal Green from the roadway. The defendant pleaded that the damages claimed were . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Negligence

Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.196528

Moss v Christchurch Rural District Council: 1925

Damage caused to a house may result in an award of the diminution of the value of the house only.

Citations:

[1925] 2 KB 750

Cited by:

Cited – Hunter and Others v Canary Wharf Ltd HL 25-Apr-1997
The claimant, in a representative action complained that the works involved in the erection of the Canary Wharf tower constituted a nuisance in that the works created substantial clouds of dust and the building blocked her TV signals, so as to limit . .
Cited – Philips v Ward CA 1956
The Plaintiff had relied on a negligent survey to purchase a substantial Elizabethan property and land. The report did not mention that the timbers of the house were badly affected by death watch beetle and worm so that the only course left to him . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Nuisance, Damages

Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.195604

McDonalds v Burger King: 1987

Where a trade mark or passing off claim succeeds at trial, the successful claimant is entitled to an inquiry as to damages unless the court is satisfied it would be fruitless.

Citations:

[1987] FSR 112

Cited by:

Cited – Reed Executive Plc, Reed Solutions Plc v Reed Business Information Ltd, Reed Elsevier (Uk) Ltd, Totaljobs Com Ltd CA 3-Mar-2004
The claimant alleged trade mark infringement by the respondents by the use of a mark in a pop-up advert.
Held: The own-name defence to trade mark infringement is limited. Some confusion may be allowed if overall the competition was not unfair . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Intellectual Property, Damages

Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.194811

Drane v Evangelou: CA 1978

The court said of a claim that an award of andpound;1000 for exemplary damages was too high: ‘In my opinion a sum awarded by the way of exemplary damages is not to be weighed in any scales. It is a question for the judge, having heard all the evidence, towards such sum as he thinks proper . .’

Judges:

Lord Denning MR, Goff LJ

Citations:

[1978] 1 WLR 455

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Applied – Rookes v Barnard (No 1) HL 21-Jan-1964
The court set down the conditions for the award of exemplary damages. There are two categories. The first is where there has been oppressive or arbitrary conduct by a defendant. Cases in the second category are those in which the defendant’s conduct . .

Cited by:

Cited – Design Progression Limited v Thurloe Properties Limited ChD 25-Feb-2004
The tenant applied for a licence to assign. The landlord failed to reply, anticipating that delay would allow it to generate a better lease renewal.
Held: The delay was unreasonable and a breach of the landlord’s statutory duty, and was an act . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.194088

Dean v Prince: CA 1954

The court had criticised an auditors’ valuation of a company’s shares.
Held: The criticism was not correct. However. if the court was satisfied that the valuation was made under a mistake, it would not be binding on the parties.
Denning LJ said: ‘Even if the court cannot point to the actual alleged error, nevertheless, if the figure itself is so extravagantly large or so inadequately small that the only conclusion is that he must have gone wrong somewhere, then the court will interfere much in the same way as the Court of Appeal will interfere with an award of damages if it is a wholly erroneous estimate.’

Judges:

Denning LJ

Citations:

[1954] 1 All ER 749, [1954] Ch 409

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – Dean v Prince 1953
An auditor had valued the shares in a private company under its articles. The court was asked to look behind the valuation: ‘In my judgment the valuation cannot stand. I propose, therefore, to declare that the valuation is not binding upon the . .

Cited by:

Applied – In re Bird Precision Bellows Ltd CA 1986
The company which was formed to combine one party’s expertise in the manufacturing of precision bellows with the general experience of two others in financial, commercial and industrial matters. For several years the company’s affairs had worked . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Company, Damages

Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.192600

Jacob and Youngs v Kent: 1921

Citations:

[1921] 129 NE 869

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Considered – Ruxley Electronics and Construction Ltd v Forsyth HL 29-Jun-1995
Damages on Construction not as Agreed
The appellant had contracted to build a swimming pool for the respondent, but, after agreeing to alter the specification to construct it to a certain depth, in fact built it to the original lesser depth, Damages had been awarded to the house owner . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.192626

Knibb and another v National Coal Board: CA 1987

The court considered whether the Lands Tribunal had power to award interest on an award made under a statutory power.
Held: The Lands Tribunal had power to award interest on the amount of compensation in respect of the period from the date on which the damage occurred to the date of the award. However, the decision was not to be taken as a decision that the Lands Tribunal was entitled to award interest in every case of disputed compensation from the date on which the right to compensation arises. ‘By analogy with the powers of an arbitrator appointed by agreement between the parties, the Lands Tribunal is required to apply English law, including, where appropriate, section 3 of the Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions ) Act 1934. It is appropriate to apply that section in the present case because: (a) as Sir John Donaldson M.R. makes clear, the claimant’s claim in their reference was for ‘compensation by way of damages’ under section 13(3)(b) of the Act of 1957; and (b) the question the statute requires the Lands Tribunal to determine is wide enough to comprehend the determination and award of interest on such damages.’ (Nourse, dissenting)

Judges:

Sir John Donaldson, Master of the Rolls, Lord Justice Nourse and Lord Justice Glidewell

Citations:

[1987] 1 QB 906

Statutes:

Coal Mining (Subsidence) Act 1957 1(4) 13(3)(b)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Mohammed Aslam v South Bedfordshire District Council CA 21-Dec-2000
The claimant appealed an award of the Lands Tribunal of compensation for an order discontinuing his use as a slaughterhouse of premises of which he held a long lease. The tribunal had applied a discount for wastage on sheep carcasses of 25%, but had . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Damages

Updated: 13 May 2022; Ref: scu.190479

Drinkwater v Kimber: CA 1952

The female plaintiff had been injured in a collision caused by the concurrent negligence of her husband and the defendant. She could not succeed in a negligence action against her husband, so the defendant could not recover under the Law Reform (Married Women and Tortfeasors) Act 1935 any contribution to the damages awarded against the defendant to the wife. To overcome this difficulty, by a counter claim against the husband the defendant sought contribution under the Act of 1945.
Held: The defendant could not recover under the Act of 1945. That Act gave the defendant no claim against the husband in respect of the wife’s injuries and the defendant’s liability to the wife was not ‘damage’ suffered by him within the meaning of section 1(1). The Act did not give the defendant a cause of action against the husband; it did not purport to create any new variety of claim; it seemed clear that the word ‘damage’ referred to that which was suffered and for which a ‘claim’ might be made and for which ‘damages’ are recoverable. If the section applied, the court would have to record the total damages which would have been recoverable by the defendant from the husband if the defendant had not been at fault. If the defendant had not been negligent the total damages recoverable would have been nil. To award andpound;135, being the contribution claimed from the husband, would have been ‘a strange phenomenon of contraction.’

Judges:

Morris LJ, Singleton LJ

Citations:

[1952] 2 QB 281

Statutes:

Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945 1(1)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Platform Home Loans Ltd v Oyston Shipways Ltd and others HL 18-Feb-1999
The plaintiffs had lent about 1 million pounds on the security of property negligently valued at 1.5 million pounds. The property was sold for much less than that and the plaintiffs suffered a loss of 680,000 pounds. The judge found that the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Negligence

Updated: 12 May 2022; Ref: scu.190064

The Texaco Melbourne: 1994

In deciding what should be the appropriate currency for a damages award, no account should be taken of fluctuations in the value of currencies between the date of breach and the date of judgment.

Judges:

Lord Goff

Citations:

[1994] 1 Lloyds Rep 473

Cited by:

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 . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 12 May 2022; Ref: scu.186848

Emeh v Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster Area Health Authority: CA 1985

Evidence was given to the effect that the chance of a baby being born with a congenital abnormality was between one in 200 and one in 400.

Judges:

Waller LJ

Citations:

[1985] QB 1012

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Rees v Darlington Memorial Hospital NHS Trust HL 16-Oct-2003
The claimant was disabled, and sought sterilisation because she feared the additional difficulties she would face as a mother. The sterilisation failed. She sought damages.
Held: The House having considered the issue in MacFarlane only . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 12 May 2022; Ref: scu.186892

Metropolitan Board of Works v McCarthy: HL 1874

Compensation was awarded to the owner of a warehouse near Blackfriars because the construction of the Victoria Embankment cut off his access across the public highway to a dock on the river. Lord Cairns LC quoted Thesiger QC as saying: ‘Where by the construction of works there is a physical interference with any right, public or private, which the owners or occupiers of property are by law entitled to make use of, in connection with such property, and which right gives an additional market value to such property, apart from the uses to which any particular owner or occupier might put it, there is a title to compensation, if, by reason of such interference, the property, as a property, is lessened in value.’ and ‘The word ‘physical’ is here used in order to distinguish the case from cases of that class where the interference is not of a physical, but rather of a mental, nature, or of an inferential kind, such as those of a road rendered less agreeable or convenient, or a view interfered with, or the profits of a trade, by the creation of a new highway or street, diminished in the old one. And in like manner the words ‘a right, public or private, which the owner of property is entitled to make use of,’ apply to this case and distinguish it from such cases as Hammersmith Railway Co. v. Brand. There no right, public or private, was interfered with, and the claim for compensation was made in respect of the injury to the enjoyment of the property.’

Judges:

Lord Cairns L.C

Citations:

[1874] LR 7 HL 243

Statutes:

Land Clauses Consolidation Act 1845 68

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Wrotham Park Settled Estates v Hertsmere Borough Council CA 12-Apr-1993
Land had been purchased under compulsory purchase powers. It had been subject to restrictive covenants in favour of neighbouring land which would have prevented the development now implemented. The question was how the compensation should be . .
Cited – Moto Hospitality Ltd v Secretary of State for Transport CA 26-Jul-2007
The company sought damages to its business on a motorway service station when works closed an access road.
Held: The Secretary of State’s appeal succeeded. A claim for compensation under section 10 had not been established, at least in respect . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Damages

Updated: 12 May 2022; Ref: scu.186376

Allan v Scott: 1972

The courts in Scotland can look to English awards of damages for personal injuries.

Citations:

1972 SC 59

Jurisdiction:

Scotland

Cited by:

Cited – Morris v Fife Council OHCS 4-Jul-2003
The pursuer sought damages from the respondent council for abuse he had suffered whilst in their care as a child. He sought jury trial, the defenders said that was unsuitable, liability being admitted.
Held: This was a case which exceptionally . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 12 May 2022; Ref: scu.184318

Tredget and Tredget v Bexley Health Authority: 1994

(Central London County Court) As a result of the defendant hospital’s negligent management of Mrs Tredget’s labour, her baby was born in a severely asphyxiated state and died two days later. The actual birth of the child with its ‘chaos’ or ‘pandemonium’ was for those immediately and directly involved as each of the parents was frightening and horrifying. The event of the delivery was a powerful factor in contributing to the pathological grief reaction each suffered afterwards.
Held: Each of the plaintiffs had established liability even though full appreciation of the gravity of the child’s condition only came during his short struggle for life in intensive care during the forty-eight hours that followed his birth. It is unrealistic to separate out and isolate the delivery as an event, from the other sequence of happenings from the onset of labour to Callum’s death two days later, as a whole. . . Although lasting for over forty-eight hours from the onset of labour to the death, this effectively was one event. . . The law should be, and in my judgment is, ‘fluid enough’ simply to recognise one type of traumatic event and shut its eyes to another such as that upon which this claim is founded whether or not it is necessary – and in my judgment it is not – to pray in aid the concept of the ‘aftermath.’

Judges:

His Hon. Judge White

Citations:

[1994] 5 Med LR 178

Cited by:

Cited – North Glamorgan NHS Trust v Walters CA 6-Dec-2002
A new mother woke in hospital to see her baby (E) fitting. E suffered a major epileptic seizure leading to coma and irreparable brain damage. E was transferred to a London hospital and the following day the claimant was told by a consultant that E’s . .
Cited – JD v East Berkshire Community Health NHS Trust and others HL 21-Apr-2005
Parents of children had falsely and negligently been accused of abusing their children. The children sought damages for negligence against the doctors or social workers who had made the statements supporting the actions taken. The House was asked if . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Personal Injury

Updated: 12 May 2022; Ref: scu.183345

Davies v Taylor (No 2): HL 2 Jan 1974

The plaintiff argued that no costs had been incurred by the successful defendant, as he was insured, and the insurance company was bound to pay his costs.
Held: ‘In this case the solicitors, no doubt first instructed by the insurance company, were the solicitors on the record as the solicitors for the respondent. They acted for him and, in the absence of proof of an agreement between him and them or between them and the insurance company that he would not pay their costs, they could look to him for payment for the work done and his liability would not be excluded by the fact that the insurance company had itself agreed to pay their costs. In my opinion the costs incurred were incurred by the respondent in the sense in which those words are used in the Legal Aid Act 1964.’

Judges:

Viscount Dilhorne

Citations:

[1974] AC 225

Statutes:

Legal Aid Act 1964 1(1)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

See Also – Davies v Taylor HL 1974
The plaintiff’s husband was killed in a road accident caused by the defendant’s negligence. They were childless. She had deserted him five weeks before his death and thereafter, he learned about her adultery with a fellow employee. He tried to . .

Cited by:

Cited – Miskin, Miskin v St John Vaughan SCCO 18-Sep-2002
The claimants resisted an order to pay the VAT element awarded on the defendant’s legal costs. The revenue had been unable to state clearly whether the defendant would be able to recover VAT, in which case it would not be payable, or the reverse. It . .
See Also – Davies v Taylor HL 1974
The plaintiff’s husband was killed in a road accident caused by the defendant’s negligence. They were childless. She had deserted him five weeks before his death and thereafter, he learned about her adultery with a fellow employee. He tried to . .
Cited – Bee v Jenson ComC 21-Dec-2006
The defendant objected to paying the plaintiff the costs of a replacement hire car after the accident for which he was liable. He said that the plaintiff was in any event insured to recover that cost, and the insurance company were subrogated to the . .
Cited – Radford and Another v Frade and Others QBD 8-Jul-2016
The court was asked as to the terms on which solicitors and Counsel were retained to act for the defendants. The appeals did not raise any issues concerning costs practice, and were by way of review of the Costs Judge’s rulings, and not by way of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Legal Aid, Costs

Updated: 12 May 2022; Ref: scu.183450

McConnell v Police Authority for Northern Ireland: 1997

An award of aggravated damages should not be an extra sum over and above the sum which the Tribunal of fact considers appropriate compensation for the injury to the claimants feelings, and that aggravated damages should not be treated as an extra award which reflects a degree of punishment of a respondent for its behaviour. The right course was to arrive at a figure which included whatever sum was thought to be appropriate by way of aggravated damages in order to reflect the sum for injury to feelings.

Judges:

Lord Chief Justice Carswell

Citations:

[1997] IRLR 625

Jurisdiction:

Northern Ireland

Cited by:

Cited – D Watt (Shetland) Ltd v Reid EAT 25-Sep-2001
The employer appealed an award of ten thousand pounds including aggravated damages, and other elements after a finding of sex discrimination. They also awarded six hundred pounds in interest. It was asserted that Scots law did not allow for . .
Cited – T G Harris v The Post Office (Royal Mail) EAT 25-Feb-2000
EAT Sex Discrimination – Injury to Feelings
The applicant, a homosexual, was humiliated at work by his fellow employees, and management failed to deal with his complaint. He succeeded in his claim for unfair . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Employment, Damages

Updated: 12 May 2022; Ref: scu.182956

Pickering v Liverpool Daily Post and Echo Newspapers plc: HL 1991

Damages were awarded for a breach of statutory duty where the claimant had suffered loss or damage by reason of the breach. The publication at issue went beyond reporting and ‘it reached deeply into the substance of the matter which the court had closed its doors to consider’. A mental health review tribunal is a court to which the law of contempt applies. As to section 19: ‘this definition must be intended to reflect the common law concept of what is a ‘court’ for the purposes of the common law jurisdiction of the courts in relation to contempt of court’.
Lord Donaldson gave two reasons why injunctions to restrain publication are rarely given: ‘Where the contempt would consist of impeding or prejudicing the course of justice, it will rarely be appropriate for two reasons . . The second is that it is the wise and settled practice of the courts not to grant injunctions restraining the commission of a criminal act (and contempt of court is a criminal or quasi-criminal act) unless the penalties available under the criminal law have proved to be inadequate to deter the commission of the offences. Unlawful street trading and breaches of the provisions of the Shops Acts are well-known examples.’

Judges:

Lord Bridge of Harwich, Lord Donaldson

Citations:

[1991] 2 AC 370, [1991] 2 WLR 513, [1990] 1 All ER 335

Statutes:

Contempt of Court Act 1981 19, Administration of Justice Act 1960 12

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Re W (Wards) (Publication of Information) FD 1989
An injunction was given to prohibit wards of court being named during the Cleveland child abuse inquiry. A summary of what has been said in court and written before hand in statements and reports are as much prohibited from publication as are direct . .

Cited by:

Cited – T and others v Mental Health Review Tribunal and G Admn 22-Feb-2002
The applicant’s former partner, G, had been detained under the Act. She had obtained an injunction to keep him away, but whilst exercising staying contact with her child, he had killed his own parents, and was now detained. The tribunal had ordered . .
Cited – Cullen v Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (Northern Ireland) HL 10-Jul-2003
The claimant had been arrested. He had been refused access to a solicitor whilst detaiined, but, in breach of statutory duty, he had not been given reasons as to why access was denied. He sought damages for that failure.
Held: If damages were . .
Cited – Regina v East London and the City Mental Health NHS Trust and Another ex parte Von Brandenburg (Aka Hanley) HL 13-Nov-2003
The patient was ordered to be discharged and released from hospital. The tribunal making the order had not accepted the medical recommendations. His release was deferred pending the finding of accommodation, but in the meantime, a social worker . .
Cited – Kent County Council v The Mother, The Father, B (By Her Children’s Guardian); Re B (A Child) (Disclosure) FD 19-Mar-2004
The council had taken the applicant’s children into care alleging that the mother had harmed them. In the light of the subsequent cases casting doubt on such findings, the mother sought the return of her children. She applied now that the hearings . .
Cited – X v Dempster FD 9-Nov-1998
The columnist Nigel Dempster had written that the mother in forthcoming proceedings relating to a child was a bad mother.
Held: The article was a contempt of court. Such an allegation required proof to the criminal standard. At common law the . .
Cited – Kelly (A Minor) v British Broadcasting Corporation FD 25-Jul-2000
K, aged 16, had left home to join what was said to be a religious sect. His whereabouts were unknown. He had been made a ward of court and the Official Solicitor was appointed to represent his interests. He had sent messages to say that he was well . .
Cited – Mersey Care NHS Trust, Regina (on the Application of) v Mental Health Review Tribunal and others Admn 22-Jul-2004
Proceedings before the Mental Health Review Tribnal had been very nearly all held in private. The patient, Ian Brady sought to have his hearing in public.
Held: Beatson J approved the Tribunal’s reasons forfind that their privacy rules were a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Contempt of Court

Updated: 12 May 2022; Ref: scu.182789

Wilson v Ministry of Defence: 1991

The court was asked to look at three events envisaged, and to consider whether, if they did occur, they should be described as constituting serious deterioration.
Held: ‘First of all the development of arthritis to the extent that surgery is required. Osteoarthritis is a progressive condition. It is very common in cases where damage is suffered to an articular surface. I am not satisfied that it is established that deterioration to the point of surgery being required falls within the definition of serious deterioration in the circumstances of this case. It seems to me to be simply an aspect of a progression of this particular disease.
Secondly, development of arthritis to the extent that he changes employment. Again, it seems to me very much the same approach can be applied as with regard to the requirement of surgery and I do not think that deterioration triggering a change of employment can properly be described as serious within the meaning of the section.
Thirdly, that the plaintiff suffers a further injury in the nature of further damage to the ankle or elsewhere.’
The court rejected the Claimant’s approach: ‘The question then arises as to which cases are appropriate for a provisional damages award and which are not. I deal with this because, although I formed the view that there was no serious deterioration envisaged in this case, that was not a matter that I found entirely easy and indeed there are some matters that may more properly be dealt with under the heading of ‘discretion’ rather than taking into account the circumstances of the case in looking at whether or not the section was complied with.
The general rule in English law is that damages are assessed on a once-and-for-all basis. Section 32A of the Supreme Court Act 1981 creates a valuable statutory exception. In my judgment, the section envisages a clear and severable risk rather than a continuing deterioration, as is the typical osteoarthritic picture.
In my judgment, many disabilities follow a developing pattern in which the precise results cannot be foreseen. Within a general band this or that may or may not occur. Such are not the cases for provisional damages. The courts have to do their best to make an award in the light of a broad medical prognosis.
In my judgment, there should be some clear-cut event which, if it occurs, triggers an entitlement to further compensation.
Argument was addressed to the question of whether or not the discretion should be exercised. No doubt the courts will work out over a period of time the various factors that it may be relevant to take into account in the exercise of such a discretion. In my judgment, the important factors in this case are, first, to look and see whether, in respect of any of the three events outlined by Mr. Langstaff, there can truly be said to be a clear-cut identifiable threshold. In my judgment, there cannot.
I also take into account the degree of risk and the consequences of the risk. They do not seem to me to be such as to place this case into the category where there is a great demand that there ought to be only a provisional damages award at this stage.
In a sense, this point leads into the third aspect that I regard as particularly relevant to the exercise of this discretion, and that is weighing up the possibilities of doing justice by a once-and-for-all assessment against the possibility of doing better justice by reserving the plaintiff’s right to return.
It seems to me that the case falls within the general run of cases where there are uncertainties as far as the future is concerned. Nobody can look into a crystal ball and see precisely how the condition of the plaintiff’s ankle will develop, but I think that the uncertainties are such that they can all properly be taken into account in making a once-and-for-all assessment of damages today. My conclusion therefore is that this is not an appropriate case in which to exercise discretion in favour of a provisional damages order.’

Judges:

Scott Baker J

Citations:

[1991] ICR 595, [1991] 1 All ER 638

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

approved – Curi v Colina CA 14-Oct-1998
A chance of ‘serious . . disease or deterioration’ must be a measurable risk rather than merely fanciful. There must be a possibility of deterioration, but there is no need to show more than a possibility. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Employment, Personal Injury, Damages

Updated: 12 May 2022; Ref: scu.182880

O’Laoire v Jackel International Limited (No 2): CA 1991

On taking up employment the plaintiff was told he would later be appointed managing director. His employment was terminated, and he sought damages.
Held: The defendant was estopped from denying it would appoint him managing director, since this was found to have been an implied term of his contract.
It was settled law that there was no claim for injury to feelings. The compensatory award received through a claim in the industrial tribunal should not be set off against the award, since the tribunal had not particularised the award under any one or more heads of damages.
Sir Nicholas Browne-Wilkinson stated that ‘it is well established that there can be no estoppel arising out of an order or judgment given in excess of jurisdiction’

Judges:

Lord Justice Browne Wilkinson

Citations:

[1991] 1 ICR 718, [1991] IRLR 170 CA

Statutes:

Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978 69(1)(3) 75(1)(3)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Foster v Bon Groundwork Ltd EAT 17-Mar-2011
EAT PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE – Striking-out/dismissal
In April 2009, the Claimant, who was then 77 years of age, was employed by the Respondent, when he was laid off without pay. While still being employed by . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Employment, Damages

Updated: 12 May 2022; Ref: scu.182099

Stanley v Saddique: 1991

Citations:

[1992] QB 1, [1991] CLY 1307

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Considered – Bordin v St Mary’s NHS Trust QBD 2000
The claimant’s mother had died as a result of the negligence of the respondent.
Held: The calculation of past and future dependancy should refer to the care whether paid or unpaid actually provide or expected to be provided by the deceased. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 12 May 2022; Ref: scu.181009

Reid-Newfoundland Co v Anglo-American Telegraph Co Ltd: PC 1912

A railway company agreed not to transmit any commercial messages over a particular telegraph wire except for the benefit and account of the telegraph company.
Held: The railway company was liable to account as a trustee for the profits it wrongfully made from its use of the wire for commercial purposes.

Citations:

[1912] AC 555

Jurisdiction:

Canada

Cited by:

Cited – HM Attorney General v Blake (Jonathan Cape Ltd third Party intervening) HL 3-Aug-2000
Restitutionary Claim against Pofits from Breach
The author had written his book in breach of his duty of confidence. Having signed the Official Secrets Act, he accepted a contractual private law duty. After conviction as a spy, the publication of the book was in breach of the undertaking by not . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Damages

Updated: 12 May 2022; Ref: scu.180894

Bailey v Bullock: 1950

The court awarded damages against solicitors for the inconvenience to the plaintiff of having to live in an overcrowded house.

Judges:

Barry J

Citations:

[1950] 2 All ER 1167

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Applied – Hobbs v London and South Western Railway Co 1875
The court considered an application for damages for inconvenience in a breach of contract case: ‘for the mere inconvenience, such as annoyance and loss of temper, or vexation, or for being disappointed in a particular thing which you have set your . .

Cited by:

Cited – Jarvis v Swans Tours Ltd CA 16-Oct-1972
The plaintiff had booked a holiday through the defendant travel tour company. He claimed damages after the holiday failed to live up to expectations.
Held: In appropriate cases where one party contracts to provide entertainment and enjoyment, . .
Cited – Johnson v Gore Wood and Co HL 14-Dec-2000
Shareholder May Sue for Additional Personal Losses
A company brought a claim of negligence against its solicitors, and, after that claim was settled, the company’s owner brought a separate claim in respect of the same subject-matter.
Held: It need not be an abuse of the court for a shareholder . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 12 May 2022; Ref: scu.180678

Coupland v Arabian Gulf Oil Co: QBD 1983

The plaintiff employee, injured whilst working for the defendant in Libya, sued in contract and tort. The judge held that Libyan law was the proper law of the contract, but that this was of no relevance to the claim in tort which could proceed here if the plaintiff could satisfy the double actionability rule. The defendant argued that the English double actionability rule should not be applied because there was a Libyan contract.
Hodgson J said: ‘It is clear that the ordinary rule in tort is that the law of the place where the action is being brought – the lex fori – is the law to be applied. To find an exception to that rule one has to find as issue, which is decided differently by the two jurisprudences, which is capable of being segregated and which can then be decided by an application of what, in effect by the back door, is the proper law of that issue. But before one can do that one has to have some substantial difference between the two systems of law. In this case (as I have demonstrated) the only possible candidate for segregation would be the rule in Libyan law that social security benefits are not deductible from an award of general damages. But that contention is not advanced by Mr Hartley Booth for the plaintiff (and properly so it seems to me), for that rule is, in my judgment, a rule for the quantification of damage and not a rule dealing with a head of damage. And if it is a rule dealing with the quantification of damage, then it is for the law of this country to prevail.’

Judges:

Hodgson J

Citations:

[1983] 1 WLR 1136

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Roerig v Valiant Trawlers Ltd CA 28-Jan-2002
The claimant who was Dutch, was a widow of a fisherman who had died at sea. The question on appeal was ‘in assessing damages for loss of dependency should benefits resulting from the loss be deducted from the damages?’ The claimant’s position under . .
Cited – Ernst Kastner v Marc Jason, Davis Sherman, Brigitte Sherman CA 2-Dec-2004
The parties had agreed that their dispute should be resolved before the Jewish Beth Din according to Jewish substantive and procedural law. K was granted an interim freezing order. The defendant sold the asset, and K sought to assert a charge.
Cited – Cox v Ergo Versicherung Ag SC 2-Apr-2014
The deceased army officer serving in Germany died while cycling when hit by a driver insured under German law. His widow, the claimant, being domiciled in England brought her action here, claiming for bereavement and loss of dependency. The Court . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Benefits, International, Damages

Updated: 12 May 2022; Ref: scu.180552

Christopher Hill Ltd v Ashington Piggeries Ltd: HL 1972

Mink farmers had asked a compounder of animal foods to make up mink food to a supplied formula.
Held: There was reliance as to the suitability of the ingredients only.
Lord Diplock said: ‘Unless the Sale of Goods Act 1893 is to be allowed to fossilise the law and to restrict the freedom of choice of parties to contracts for the sale of goods to make agreements which take account of advances in technology and changes in the way in which business is carried on today, the provisions set out in the various sections and subsections of the code ought not to be construed so narrowly as to force upon parties to contracts for the sale of goods promises and consequences different from what they must reasonably have intended. They should be treated rather as illustrations of the application to simple types of contract of general principles for ascertaining the common intention of the parties as to their mutual promises and their consequences, which ought to be applied by analogy in cases arising out of contracts which do not appear to have been within the immediate contemplation of the draftsman of the Act in 1893.’ and
‘Because of the source of the rules stated in the Sale of Goods Act 1893 the classification adopted is by reference to the promises made in relatively simple types of contracts for the sale of goods which were commonly made in the 19th century and had been the subject of judicial decision before 1893.’
Viscount Dilhorne said: ‘I regard it as almost unarguable that a person who goes into a shop and asks for a food for feeding to animals has not made known the particular purpose for which he is requiring the food and that he has only made known the particular purpose if he specifies the variety or varieties of animals he wants to feed.’
Lord Guest distinguished between a dealer in the way of business as opposed to when a seller sold goods in a private capacity.
Lord Wilberforce said: ‘But, moreover, consideration with the preceding common law shows that what the Act had in mind was something quite simple and rational: to limit the implied conditions of fitness or quality to persons in the way of business, as distinct from private persons.’ and ‘I would have no difficulty in holding that a seller deals in goods ‘of that description’ if he accepts orders to supply them in the way of business and this whether or not he has previously accepted orders for goods of that description.’
and ‘Equally I think it is clear (as both courts have found) that there was reliance on the respondents’ skill and judgment. Although the Act [ie section 14(1) of the Sale of Goods Act 1893] makes no reference to partial reliance, it was settled, well before the Cammell Laird case [1934] AC 402 was decided in this House, that there may be cases where the buyer relies on his own skill or judgment for some purposes and on that of the seller for others. This House gave that principle emphatic endorsement.’

Judges:

Lord Diplock, Lord Wilberforce, Viscount Dilhorne, Lord Guest

Citations:

[1972] AC 441

Statutes:

Sale of Goods Act 1893 14(1)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – Christopher Hill Ltd v Ashington Piggeries Ltd CA 1969
The buyer suppied a food formula to a food mixer and claimed damages when the food mix injured his mink. The defendant argued that the level of damages sought exceeded that expectations of the parties when the contract was entered into.
Held: . .

Cited by:

Cited – Hamilton v Papakura District Council and Watercare Services Ltd PC 28-Feb-2002
(New Zealand) The claimants sought damages. The water authority had put in the water supply herbicides which damaged the crops they sought to grow, and which were watered from the supply. The plants were particularly sensitive to such chemicals.
Cited – Regina v Secretary of State for Health ex parte Quintavalle (on behalf of Pro-Life Alliance) HL 13-Mar-2003
Court to seek and Apply Parliamentary Intention
The appellant challenged the practice of permitting cell nuclear replacement (CNR), saying it was either outside the scope of the Act, or was for a purpose which could not be licensed under the Act.
Held: The challenge failed. The court was to . .
Cited – Stevenson and Another v Rogers CA 8-Dec-1998
The defendant, who carried on the business of a fisherman, sold his vessel Jelle to the plaintiff with a view to having a new boat built to his requirements. In the event he bought a replacement vessel which he continued to use for his business. The . .
Cited – Jewson Limited v Boyhan as Personal Representative of the Estate of Thomas Michael Kelly CA 28-Jul-2003
The company appealed a finding that it was in breach of the 1979 Act. The deceased had bought boilers from the appellant. They were said not to be satisfactory, in that they were not as energy efficient as they had been described to be.
Held: . .
Cited – Transfield Shipping Inc of Panama v Mercator Shipping Inc of Monrovia ComC 1-Dec-2006
The owners made substantial losses after the charterers breached the contract by failing to redliver the ship on time as agreed.
Held: On the facts found the Owners’ primary claim is not too remote. To the knowledge of the Charterers, it was . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Damages

Updated: 12 May 2022; Ref: scu.180097

Friends’ Provident Life Office v Hillier, Parker May and Rowden: CA 1997

Friends Provident had participated in a development project on terms which required it to pay its share of the development costs as it proceeded. It employed Hillier Parker, a firm of surveyors, to check demands made from time to time for payment of its share of development costs. Friends Provident paid the developer its share of costs, as demanded, on the recommendation of Hillier Parker. There had been included, wrongly, an item described as ‘notional interest’. Friends Provident were unable to recover sums paid as notional interest from the developer and sued Hillier Parker for damages for negligence by reference to those sums paid. Hillier Parker then instituted third party proceedings against the developer. It sought contribution on three bases, namely (1) Friends Provident had paid the notional interest to the developer under a mistake of fact or for no consideration and the latter was liable to repay it, (2) the developer’s receipt of the notional interest was in circumstances such as to constitute it a trustee of those sums and (3) the developer’s application for payment of notional interest was in breach of an express or implied term of the development agreement. The developer successfully applied to strike out the third party proceedings. Hillier Parker appealed.
Held: If two parties were both liable they could claim contribution from each other under the section even though the liabilities might be under different heads. The Act enabled contribution to be claimed in those circumstances.
Auld LJ considered whether a claim for restitution by Friends Provident against the developers would be a claim in respect of the same damage alleged by Friends Provident against Hillier Parker: ‘In my judgment, despite the distinction between a claim for restitution and one for damages, each may be a claim for compensation for damage under sections 1(1) and 6(1) of the Act of 1978. The difference between asking for a particular sum of money back or for an equivalent sum of money for the damage suffered because of the withholding of it is immaterial in this statutory context, which is concerned with ‘compensation’ for ‘damage.’ The purpose and effect of the Act were to provide for contribution beyond that of joint tortfeasors for which section 6 of the Law Reform (Married Women and Tortfeasors) Act 1935 had previously provided. The contribution is as to ‘compensation’ recoverable against a person in respect of ‘any damage suffered by another’ ‘whatever the legal basis of his liability, whether tort, breach of contract, breach of trust or otherwise.’ It is difficult to imagine a broader formulation of an entitlement to contribution. It clearly spans a variety of causes of action, forms of damage in the sense of loss of some sort, and remedies, the last of which are gathered together under the umbrella of ‘compensation.’ The Act was clearly intended to be given a wide interpretation . . .’

Judges:

Auld, Saville and Rose LJJ

Citations:

[1997] QB 85

Statutes:

Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978 1

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – K v P (J, Third Party) 1993
Illegality was arguably not a defence to a claim under the Act of 1978: ‘The Act of 1978 extends the potential for contribution beyond joint tortfeasors to joint contractors, joint trustees and others who are liable in respect of the same damage. . . .

Cited by:

Cited – Eastgate Group Ltd v Lindsey Morden Group Inc, and Smith and Williamson (a Firm) CA 10-Oct-2001
The defendant faced a claim for breach of warranties given by vendors in a company share sale agreement. The sought a contribution from the purchasers accountants who had prepared figures upon which the purchase decision was based. The defendants’ . .
Disapproved in part – Royal Brompton Hospital National Health Service Trust v Hammond and others HL 25-Apr-2002
The claimants sought damages against the defendants for their late delivery of a building. The contractors sought to share the damages with the architects who had certified the delays, defeating their own claims.
Held: The Act sought to extend . .
Cited – Charter Plc and Another v City Index Ltd and others ChD 12-Oct-2006
An employee of the claimant had fraudulently spent several million pounds of the claimant’s money on personal bets through the defendant company. The claimant said that the defendants knew the origin of the funds and were liable to repay them. . .
Cited – City Index Ltd and others v Gawler and others; Charter plc v City Index Ltd CA 21-Dec-2007
A senior employee of Charter had fraudulently spent substantial sums with City Index. City Index had paid out on a claim of knowing receipt, and sought contributions from directors of Charter and their auditors, saying that they had known of the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 12 May 2022; Ref: scu.180114

Alcock and Others v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police: CA 31 May 1991

The defendant policed a football match at which many people died. The plaintiffs, being relatives and friends of the deceased, inter alia suffered nervous shock having seen the events either from within the ground, or from outside or at home on television.
Held: To establish a claim the plaintiffs had to show that it was foreseeable that they would suffer the injury, and also a sufficiently close relationship with the deceased. If this was not a family relationship, it had to be one of particular closeness. To make a claim for damages for nervous shock, the plaintiffs must show physical proximity. Those who had seen the events on television could not so claim.

Judges:

Lords Justices Parker, Stocker and Nolan

Citations:

[1991] 3 All ER 88

Links:

lip

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Donoghue (or M’Alister) v Stevenson HL 26-May-1932
Decomposed Snail in Ginger Beer Bottle – Liability
The appellant drank from a bottle of ginger beer manufactured by the defendant. She suffered injury when she found a half decomposed snail in the liquid. The glass was opaque and the snail could not be seen. The drink had been bought for her by a . .
Doubted – Hevican v Ruane QBD 1991
The plaintiff’s son died in a car crash, and she claimed damages for nervous shock.
Held: Given the relationship, the psychological illness was reasonably foreseeable, and recoverable. . .
Doubted – Ravenscroft v Rederiaktiebolaget Transatlantic 1991
. .
Appeal from – Alcock and Others v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police QBD 31-Jul-1990
Overcrowding at a football match lead to the deaths of 95 people. The defendant’s employees had charge of safety at the match, and admitted negligence vis-a-vis those who had died and been injured. The plaintiffs sought damages, some of them for . .
Cited – Haynes v Harwood CA 1935
The plaintiff, a policemen saw a horse running loose in the street among children. He ran out, chased it and caught it but was injured.
Held: The horseowner was liable. It was foreseeable that if a horse was let loose in a crowd, somebody, . .
Cited – Bourhill v Young’s Executor HL 5-Aug-1942
When considering claims for damages for shock, the court only recognised the action lying where the injury by shock was sustained ‘through the medium of the eye or the ear without direct contact.’ Wright L said: ‘No doubt, it has long ago been . .
Cited – Dooley v Cammell Laird and Co Ltd 1951
The plaintiff was a crane driver whose load of timber, drums of paint, and bags of bolts etc, and without any fault on his part, fell into the hold of a ship as they were being lowered along with scaffolding. No one was actually injured but the . .

Cited by:

Appeal from – Alcock and Others v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police HL 28-Nov-1991
The plaintiffs sought damages for nervous shock. They had watched on television, as their relatives and friends, 96 in all, died at a football match, for the safety of which the defendants were responsible. The defendant police service had not . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Personal Injury

Updated: 12 May 2022; Ref: scu.174246

Alcock and Others v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police: QBD 31 Jul 1990

Overcrowding at a football match lead to the deaths of 95 people. The defendant’s employees had charge of safety at the match, and admitted negligence vis-a-vis those who had died and been injured. The plaintiffs sought damages, some of them for personal injuries by way of nervous shock, having seen the match on television, and knowing that their relatives were in the crowd.
Held: It was reasonably foreseeable that close family members of the deceased who saw the events on television would suffer nervous shock, as also would those themselves involved as rescuers. Others who were not physically present, or who were not close family members should not recover.

Judges:

Mr Justice Hidden

Citations:

[1991] 2 WLR 814, [1991] CLY 2671

Links:

lip

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Applied – McLoughlin v O’Brian HL 6-May-1982
The plaintiff was the mother of a child who died in an horrific accident, in which her husband and two other children were also injured. She was at home at the time of the accident, but went to the hospital immediately when she had heard what had . .
Cited – Victorian Railway Commissioners v Coultas PC 21-Jan-1888
(Victoria) The appellant’s gatekeeper had negligently invited the plaintiffs to cross a railway line as a train approached. There was no collision, but the plaintiff sought damages for physical and mental injuries from shock.
Held: The . .
Cited – Le Lievre v Gould CA 6-Feb-1893
Mortgagees of the interest of a builder under a building agreement, advanced money to him from time to time, relying upon certificates given by a surveyor as to stages reached. The surveyor was not appointed by the mortgagees, and there was no . .
Cited – Dulieu v White and Sons KBD 1901
A pregnant barmaid suffered nervous shock causing her to give premature birth as a result of the tortfeasor’s horse van bursting into her bar at the Bonner Arms in Bethnal Green from the roadway. The defendant pleaded that the damages claimed were . .
Cited – Hambrook v Stokes Brothers CA 1925
The defendant’s employee left a lorry at the top of a steep narrow street unattended, with the engine running and without having taken proper steps to secure it. The lorry ran violently down the hill. The plaintiff’s wife had been walking up the . .
Cited – Donoghue (or M’Alister) v Stevenson HL 26-May-1932
Decomposed Snail in Ginger Beer Bottle – Liability
The appellant drank from a bottle of ginger beer manufactured by the defendant. She suffered injury when she found a half decomposed snail in the liquid. The glass was opaque and the snail could not be seen. The drink had been bought for her by a . .
Cited – Jaensch v Coffey 20-Aug-1984
(High Court of Australia) The claimant’s husband was injured. She saw his injuries at hospital and was affected. She claimed damages for her own shock.
Held: The driver owed her a duty of care, and was liable for negligence which caused . .
Cited – Caparo Industries Plc v Dickman and others HL 8-Feb-1990
Limitation of Loss from Negligent Mis-statement
The plaintiffs sought damages from accountants for negligence. They had acquired shares in a target company and, relying upon the published and audited accounts which overstated the company’s earnings, they purchased further shares.
Held: The . .
Cited – Currie v Wardrop 1927
The pursuer was walking arm in arm with her fiance when he was hit by a vehicle driven by the defender.
Held: She recovered damages for nervous shock involving apprehension for her own safety and the safety of her fiance, though he was hit and . .
Cited – Haynes v Harwood CA 1935
The plaintiff, a policemen saw a horse running loose in the street among children. He ran out, chased it and caught it but was injured.
Held: The horseowner was liable. It was foreseeable that if a horse was let loose in a crowd, somebody, . .
Cited – Owens v Liverpool Corporation CA 1938
Four family mourners at a funeral appealed against rejection of their claims for damages for distress caused by witnessing a collision between a negligently driven tramcar and the hearse.The incident had involved no apprehension, or sight, or sound . .
Cited – Bourhill v Young’s Executor HL 5-Aug-1942
When considering claims for damages for shock, the court only recognised the action lying where the injury by shock was sustained ‘through the medium of the eye or the ear without direct contact.’ Wright L said: ‘No doubt, it has long ago been . .
Cited – Dooley v Cammell Laird and Co Ltd 1951
The plaintiff was a crane driver whose load of timber, drums of paint, and bags of bolts etc, and without any fault on his part, fell into the hold of a ship as they were being lowered along with scaffolding. No one was actually injured but the . .
Cited – Bonnington Castings Ltd v Wardlaw HL 1-Mar-1956
The injury of which the employee complained came from two sources, a pneumatic hammer, in respect of which the employers were not in breach of the relevant Regulations; and swing grinders, in respect of which they were in breach.
Held: It had . .
Cited – Wilsher v Essex Area Health Authority HL 24-Jul-1986
A premature baby suffered injury after mistaken treatment by a hospital doctor. He had inserted a monitor into the umbilical vein. The claimant suggested the treatment should have been by a more senior doctor. The hospital appealed a finding that it . .

Cited by:

Appeal from – Alcock and Others v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police CA 31-May-1991
The defendant policed a football match at which many people died. The plaintiffs, being relatives and friends of the deceased, inter alia suffered nervous shock having seen the events either from within the ground, or from outside or at home on . .
Distinguished – Hevican v Ruane QBD 1991
The plaintiff’s son died in a car crash, and she claimed damages for nervous shock.
Held: Given the relationship, the psychological illness was reasonably foreseeable, and recoverable. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Personal Injury, Negligence, Police

Updated: 12 May 2022; Ref: scu.174245

Wadey v Surrey County Council: CA 8 Jan 1999

The effect of benefits should be disregarded when calculating interest payable on past loss of earnings damages. The new legislation did not restore the common law position, but excluded benefits from not only the basic calculations, but the interest also.

Citations:

Times 08-Jan-1999, Gazette 27-Jan-1999

Statutes:

Social Security (Recovery of Benefits) Act 1997, Social Security Administration Act 1992

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Personal Injury, Benefits, Damages

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.90222

Warren v Northern General Hospital Trust: CA 10 Apr 2000

It was not open to lower courts to reduce the guideline discount interest rate applied to damages awards to account for future returns. The original figure was set in the Act and by the House of Lords in Wells v Wells. Also the lower rates of interest currently applying are not sufficiently different to justify a change in the rate, and any change must await an order from the Lord Chancellor.

Citations:

Times 10-Apr-2000, Gazette 11-May-2000

Statutes:

Damages Act 1996

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Wells v Wells; Thomas v Brighton Health Authority; etc HL 16-Jul-1998
In each of three cases, the plaintiffs had suffered serious injury. They complained that the court had made a substantial reduction of their damages award for loss of future earnings and the costs of future care.
Held: The appeals succeeded. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.90307

Thomas v Kwik Save Stores Ltd: CA 27 Jun 2000

When assessing damages under the Act, the court’s job was limited to that of calculating financial dependency. The deceased had provided, as his wife, housekeeping services to the claimant, but she had been in poor and diminishing health. There was no way in reality of predicting whether she could have continued to provide those services or would have even become a housekeeping burden. Damages for loss of her housekeeping services were reduced from andpound;50,000 to andpound;20,000.

Citations:

Times 27-Jun-2000

Statutes:

Fatal Accidents Act 1976

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Damages, Personal Injury

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.89863

Saleslease Ltd v Davis: CA 15 Apr 1999

A special loss of profit, available only because of special circumstances which were unknown to a tortfeasor, were too remote and irrecoverable. A conversion of goods prevented the plaintiff entering an unusually profitable lease of the goods.

Citations:

Times 15-Apr-1999, Gazette 28-Apr-1999

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Damages

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.88985

Triple Point Technology, Inc v PTT Public Company Ltd: CA 5 Mar 2019

Appeal by the supplier of a software system against a judgment of the Technology and Construction Court, dismissing its claim for payment and ordering it to pay substantial damages on the counterclaim. The main issue of principle which arises is how to apply a clause imposing liquidated damages for delay in circumstances where the contractor or supplier never achieves completion.

Judges:

Sir Rupert Jackson, Lewison, Floyd LJJ

Citations:

[2019] EWCA Civ 230

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

See Also – Triple Point Technology, Inc v PTT Public Company Ltd TCC 23-Aug-2017
. .
Appeal from – Triple Point Technology, Inc v PTT Public Company Ltd TCC 7-Jun-2018
Application by Triple Point for an injunction restraining execution of a judgment that PTT attempted to enforce in the State of Connecticut in the United States in May 2018. A stay of execution had, prior to that date, already been ordered by the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Damages

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.634143

Hardman v Amin: QBD 2001

Henriques J said: ‘McFarlane does not affect the law so far as it relates to the wrongful birth of disabled children.’

Judges:

Henriques J

Citations:

[2001] PNLR 11

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Limited – MacFarlane and Another v Tayside Health Board HL 21-Oct-1999
Child born after vasectomy – Damages Limited
Despite a vasectomy, Mr MacFarlane fathered a child, and he and his wife sought damages for the cost of care and otherwise of the child. He appealed a rejection of his claim.
Held: The doctor undertakes a duty of care in regard to the . .

Cited by:

Cited – Meadows v Khan QBD 23-Nov-2017
Claim for the additional costs of raising the claimant’s son, A, who suffered from both haemophilia and autism. It is admitted that, but for the defendant’s negligence, A would not have been born because his mother would have discovered during her . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury, Damages

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.603072

Akai Holdings Ltd v Kasikornbank PCL: 8 Nov 2010

Court of Final Appeal – Hong Kong – Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury NPJ said: ‘the notion that equitable compensation is assessed on a somewhat different basis from common law damages is clearly right (albeit that the difference can be overstated)’ and ‘the losses made good are only those which, on a common sense view of causation, were caused by the breach’

Judges:

Chief Justice Ma, Mr Justice Bokhary PJ, Mr Justice Chan PJ, Mr Justice Ribeiro PJ and, Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury NPJ

Citations:

[2011] 1 HKC 357

Links:

Hklii

Cited by:

Cited – AIB Group (UK) Plc v Mark Redler and Co Solicitors SC 5-Nov-2014
Bank not to recover more than its losses
The court was asked as to the remedy available to the appellant bank against the respondent, a firm of solicitors, for breach of the solicitors’ custodial duties in respect of money entrusted to them for the purpose of completing a loan which was to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Equity, Damages

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.554210

Hodgkinson v Simms: 30 Sep 1994

Supreme Court of Canada – Fiduciary duty — Non-disclosure — Damages — Financial adviser — Client insisting that adviser not be involved in promoting — Adviser not disclosing involvement in projects — Client investing in projects suggested by adviser — Ultimate decision as to whether or not to invest that of client — Substantial losses incurred during period of economic downturn — Whether or not fiduciary duty on part of adviser — If so, calculation of damages.
Contracts — Contract for independent services — Breach by failure to disclose — Calculation of damages.
La Forest J, giving the judgment of the majority, drew the distinction between fiduciary relationships and commercial interactions governed by the common law, the former being characterised by one party’s duty to act in the other’s best interests, and often by power on the one hand and dependency on the other, whereas the common law generally respected the pursuit of self-interest. The proper approach to damages for breach of a fiduciary duty was said to be restitutionary. On that basis, the majority of the court concluded that the claimant was entitled to be compensated for the loss sustained on investments which he had made on the advice of a fiduciary who had failed to disclose a conflict of interest, notwithstanding that the loss had resulted from an unforeseen general economic downturn.

Judges:

La Forest, L’Heureux-Dube, Sopinka, Gonthier, McLachlin, Iacobucci and Major JJ

Citations:

[1994] 3 SCR 377, 117 DLR (4th) 161, [1994] 9 WWR 609, 97 BCLR (2d) 1, 16 BLR (2d) 1, 171 NR 245, 22 CCLT (2d) 1, 49 BCAC 1, 57 CPR (3d) 1, 5 ETR (2d) 1, [1994] CarswellBC 438, AZ-94111096, JE 94-1560, [1994] SCJ No 84 (QL), [1994] ACS no 84, 50 ACWS (3d) 469, 80 WAC 1, 95 DTC 5135

Links:

Canlii

Cited by:

Cited – Cadbury Schweppes v FBI Foods 28-Jan-1999
Supreme Court of Canada – Commercial law – Confidential information – Breach of confidence – -Remedies – Manufacturer using confidential information obtained under licensing agreement to manufacture competing product – Whether permanent injunction . .
Cited – AIB Group (UK) Plc v Mark Redler and Co Solicitors SC 5-Nov-2014
Bank not to recover more than its losses
The court was asked as to the remedy available to the appellant bank against the respondent, a firm of solicitors, for breach of the solicitors’ custodial duties in respect of money entrusted to them for the purpose of completing a loan which was to . .
Approved – Pilmer v Duke Group Ltd 3-Apr-2003
High Court of Australia – Trusts – Express trust – Money received by firm of solicitors to be held for a specific purpose and in accordance with specific conditions – Misapplication of funds by firm – Breach of express trust – Liability of firm as . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Commonwealth, Contract, Damages, Trusts

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.554204

Bank of New Zealand v New Zealand Guardian Trust Co Ltd: 1999

New Zealand Court of Appeal – Gault J said: ‘Recent cases show a trend in favour of analysis by reference to the scope of the duty, and enquire as to the risks against which there was a duty to protect the plaintiff. In South Australia Asset Management Corporation v York Montague Ltd [[1996] UKHL 10; 1997] AC 191 the House of Lords approached in this way a case of breach of a contractual duty of care while noting that the concurrent duty in tort was of the same scope. In the speech of Lord Hoffmann, with whom the other members agreed, it was said that the real question in such a case is the kind of loss in respect of which the duty is owed. To some extent this is merely to restate the question asking what losses is it reasonable that the law should require the wrongdoer to compensate, but it is a helpful analytical approach as illustrated in the instructive treatment in Todd, The Law of Torts (2ed 1997) para 20.3.’
Tipping J observed that while historically the law has tended to place emphasis on the legal characterisation of the relationship between the parties in delineating the remedies available for breach of an obligation, the nature of the duty which has been breached can often be more important, when considering issues of causation and remoteness, than the classification or historical source of the obligation. He identified three broad categories of breach by a trustee. First, there are breaches of duty leading directly to damage or to loss of trust property. Secondly, there are breaches involving an element of infidelity. Thirdly, there are breaches involving a lack of appropriate skill and care. He continued: ‘In the first kind of case the allegation is that a breach of duty by a trustee has directly caused loss of or damage to the trust property. The relief sought by the beneficiary is usually in such circumstances of a restitutionary kind. The trustee is asked to restore the trust estate, either in specie or by value. The policy of the law in these circumstances is generally to hold the trustee responsible if, but for the breach, the loss or damage would not have occurred. This approach is designed to encourage trustees to observe to the full their duties in relation to trust property by imposing on them a stringent concept of causation [ie a test by which a ‘but for’ connection is sufficient]. Questions of foreseeability and remoteness do not come into such an assessment.’

Judges:

Gault J, Tipping J

Citations:

[1999] 1 NZLR 664

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – AIB Group (UK) Plc v Mark Redler and Co Solicitors SC 5-Nov-2014
Bank not to recover more than its losses
The court was asked as to the remedy available to the appellant bank against the respondent, a firm of solicitors, for breach of the solicitors’ custodial duties in respect of money entrusted to them for the purpose of completing a loan which was to . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Commonwealth, Trusts, Damages

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.554201

Currie v Wardrop: 1927

The pursuer was walking arm in arm with her fiance when he was hit by a vehicle driven by the defender.
Held: She recovered damages for nervous shock involving apprehension for her own safety and the safety of her fiance, though he was hit and she was not. Miss Currie was not only at the scene, but suffered nervous shock through anxiety for her own safety. It would have been a hopeless task to attempt to work out what proportion of her nervous shock flowed from anxiety for herself, and what for her fiance.

Judges:

Lord Justice Clerk (Lord Alness) and Lord Ormidale

Citations:

1927 SC 538

Cited by:

Cited – Alcock and Others v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police HL 28-Nov-1991
The plaintiffs sought damages for nervous shock. They had watched on television, as their relatives and friends, 96 in all, died at a football match, for the safety of which the defendants were responsible. The defendant police service had not . .
Cited – Alcock and Others v Chief Constable of South Yorkshire Police QBD 31-Jul-1990
Overcrowding at a football match lead to the deaths of 95 people. The defendant’s employees had charge of safety at the match, and admitted negligence vis-a-vis those who had died and been injured. The plaintiffs sought damages, some of them for . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Scotland, Damages

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.464384

Dexter v Courtaulds Ltd: CA 1984

The plaintiff had been injured at work, and awarded damages, including for loss of wages. The parties disputed the method of calculation of interest on the damages.
Held: To avoid the laborious detailed calaculations of interest from day to day, it was proper in the general run of cases to award interest on the full amount but at half the rate. Lawton LJ said that the court Jefford v Gee clearly intended to lay down general principles for application in personal injury cases. He said that they should be departed from only in unusual circumstances.

Judges:

Lawton LJ

Citations:

[1984] 1 WLR 372, [1984] 1 All ER 70

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Jefford v Gee CA 4-Mar-1970
The courts of Scotland followed the civil law in the award of interest on damages. The court gave examples of the way in which they apply the ex mora rule when calculating the interest payable in a judgment. If money was wrongfully withheld, then . .

Cited by:

Cited – Ramzan v Brookwide Ltd CA 19-Aug-2011
The defendant had broken through into a neighbour’s flying freehold room, closed it off, and then included it in its own premises for let. It now appealed against the quantum of damages awarded. The judge had found the actions deliberate and with a . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury, Damages

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.443249

Lord Elphinstone v Monkland Iron and Coal Co: HL 1886

Lord Herschell LC examined the validity of a covenant by which lessees who had been given a right to place slag on the land leased to them covenanted to pay the lessor andpound;100 per acre for all land not levelled and soiled within a particular period. He said: ‘The agreement does not provide for the payment of a lump sum upon the non-performance of any one of many obligations differing in importance. It has reference to a single obligation, and the sum to be paid bears a strict proportion to the extent to which that obligation is left unfulfilled. There is nothing whatever to shew that the compensation is [inordinate] or extravagant in relation to the damage sustained.’ There is a presumption (but no more) that a provision is a penalty when ‘a single lump sum is made payable by way of compensation, on the occurrence of one or more or all of several events, some of which may occasion serious and others but trifling damage.’

Judges:

Lord Watson, Lord Herschell LC

Citations:

(1886) 11 AC 332

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company Ltd v New Garage and Motor Company Ltd HL 1-Jul-1914
The appellants contracted through an agent to supply tyres. The respondents contracted not to do certain things, and in case of breach concluded: ‘We agree to pay to the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company, Ltd. the sum of 5 l. for each and every tyre, . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Damages

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.440841

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.’

Judges:

Bramwell B

Citations:

(1869) 21 LT 261

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Borealis Ab v Geogas Trading Sa ComC 9-Nov-2010
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 . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.425894

Simple Simon Catering Limited v Binstock Miller and Co: CA 1973

In applying the ‘diminution in value’ rule for assessing lost opportunity damages, and particularly in claims against solicitors, a more general assessment should be made, taking account of the ‘general expectation of loss’.

Citations:

(1973) 228 EG 527, (1973) 117 SJ 529

Cited by:

Cited – Joyce v Bowman Law Ltd ChD 18-Feb-2010
The claimant asserted negligence by the defendant licensed conveyancers in not warning him of the effect of an option in the contract. He had been advised that it would allow him to choose to buy additional land, but it was in fact a put option. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.401656

Flaxmann-Binns v Linconshire County Council: CA 2004

A claimant who is reduced to a claim which would perforce be on a percentage basis for loss of chance against her legal advisers is not only suffering a real loss in the sense of being caused further delay and expense, but is also suffering a real reduction in the value of her claim.

Citations:

[2004] EWCA Civ 424

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Welsh v Parnianzadeh (T/A Southern Fried Chicken) CA 10-Dec-2004
The respondent had claimed in damages after an alleged personal injury sustained at the premises of the claimant. After several procedural failures, the claim was struck out, but on appeal, it was ordered: ‘The appellant’s appeal is thus dismissed . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Professional Negligence, Damages

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.380262

Brandes Goldschmidt and Co Ltd v Western Transport Ltd: CA 1981

Brandon LJ said: ‘Damages in tort are awarded by way of monetary compensation for the loss or losses a plaintiff has actually sustained.’

Judges:

Brandon LJ

Citations:

[1981] 1 QB 864

Cited by:

Cited – White v Withers Llp and Dearle CA 27-Oct-2009
The claimant was involved in matrimonial ancillary relief proceedings. His wife was advised by the defendants, her solicitors, to remove his private papers. The claimant now sought permission to appeal against a strike out of his claim against the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.377301

Hall Brothers Steamship Company Limited v Young: 1938

The insured vessel, Trident, went to Dunkirk and engaged a French pilot whose pilot boat developed a fault in its steering gear which caused her to collide with Trident without Trident being in any way to blame. French law had a provision that damage sustained by the pilot boat in the course of pilotage operations was chargeable to the ship, unless the pilot had been guilty of gross negligence (‘faute lourde’). The shipowner paid for the pilot boat’s damages and then claimed three-quarters of that sum from underwriters under the collision liability clause.
Held: The underwriters were not liable.
Goddard J said: ‘It seems to me that, certainly so far as it is a matter of coming to a decision upon the evidence of the French lawyers, there is no conception of delict or tort in the cause of action which is given by the French Decree to the pilot boat. It seems to me that the probable theory which underlies the legislation, though it does not matter, when it is a matter of policy of law, what theory underlies the legislation, is that the pilot boat is rendering a service for the benefit of the ship which requires pilotage and, therefore, any damage which the pilot boat may receive in the course of rendering that service is to be regarded as an expense of the pilotage and is to be paid by the ship in just the same way as she would have to pay the pilotage dues, or whatever is the correct expression used in France, as remuneration for the service which the pilot renders.’

Judges:

Goddard J

Citations:

(1938) 43 Com Cas 284

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Appeal from – Hall Brothers Steamship Company Limited v Young CA 1939
The shipowners appealed a decision that the underwriters were not liable under collision liability clause. Their ship had collided with another at Dunkirk when the steering gear failed. Under french law the pilot was not liable since he had not been . .
Cited – Bedfordshire Police Authority v Constable CA 12-Feb-2009
The police had responded to a riot at Yarlswood detention centre. They had insurance to cover their liability under the 1886 Act, but the re-insurers said that the insurance did not cover the event, saying that the liability was for statutory . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Insurance, Damages

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.282641

Naughton v O’Callaghan: 1990

Damages Award to Restore Plaintiff’s Poistion

In 1981 the plaintiffs had bought a thoroughbred yearling colt called ‘Fondu’ for 26,000 guineas. In fact a mistake had been made and its pedigree was not as represented. Its true pedigree made it suitable only for dirt track racing in the United States, not for racing in this country. This mistake was not discovered until about two years later by which time the colt had been raced unsuccessfully in the UK and its value had as a result fallen to 1,500 pounds; substantial training fees had also been wasted. The defendants did not dispute that there had been a negligent misrepresentation. The issue was as to damages. The defendants said that the actual value of the colt at the time of its purchase was 23,500 guineas and that the plaintiff’s damages should be limited to the difference, 2,500 guineas: the ‘diminution in value’ test.
Held: The Court assessed the plaintiffs’ losses, including consequential losses, as at the date of their discovery of the misrepresentation. Waller J regarded it as unjust to take the normal date of assessment.
Waller J said: ‘Where an article purchased as the result of a misrepresentation could have been sold immediately after the sale for the price paid but by the time the misrepresentation was discovered its value had fallen by reason of a defect in it which had by then become apparent the appropriate measure of damages could be the difference between the purchase price and its value at the time the misrepresentation was discovered and not the difference between the purchase price and its actual value at the time of purchase provided that the article purchased was altogether different from that which had been expected.’
As part of their damages the plaintiffs claimed for the costs incurred in training and keeping the colt before the misrepresentation was discovered. The defendant argued that the expenditure would have been incurred anyway as the plaintiffs would, if they had not bought this particular yearling, have bought another one at the same sale. The plaintiffs accepted this but said that had they bought a different horse it might have paid for its keep and reaped for them rich rewards. Waller J said: ‘I have concluded that the plaintiffs are entitled to ask the court to look simply at the contract they made in reliance on the representation which induced them to enter into that bargain. They are entitled to say that there must be no speculation one way or the other about what would have happened if they had not purchased this horse and if no misrepresentation had been made to them.’

Judges:

Waller J

Citations:

[1990] 3 All ER 191, [1991] CLY 1319

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Applied – Doyle v Olby (Ironmongers) Ltd CA 31-Jan-1969
The plaintiff had been induced by the fraudulent misrepresentation of the defendant to buy an ironmonger’s business for 4,500 pounds plus stock at a valuation of 5,000 pounds. Shortly after the purchase, he discovered the fraud and started the . .

Cited by:

Considered – Downs v Chappell; Downs v Stephenson Smart (a Firm) CA 1996
The plaintiff purchased a book shop. He claimed that in doing so he had relied upon the accounts prepared and signed off by the respective defendants.
Held: The judge had been wrong by testing what would have been the true figures as against . .
Cited – Downs and Another v Chappell and Another CA 3-Apr-1996
The plaintiffs had suceeded in variously establishing claims in deceit and negligence, but now appealed against the finding that no damages had flowed from the wrongs. They had been sold a business on the basis of incorrect figures.
Held: . .
Cited – Yam Seng Pte Ltd v International Trade Corporation Ltd QBD 1-Feb-2013
The parties had contracted for the international distribution of scent using a ‘Manchester United’ brand. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Damages

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.185448

Wilson v Liverpool Corporation: CA 1971

The claimants owned 74 acres of an area of 391 acres in Liverpool which the Corporation wanted to acquire for residential development. The authority acquired the land by agreement and made a compulsory purchase order in respect of the remainder.
Held: The purpose of the Pointe Gourde principle is to prevent the compensation for the value of the land on compulsory acquisition from being inflated by the very scheme which gives rise to the acquisition. An enhancement in value resulting entirely from the underlying scheme has to be ignored. In assessing compensation, the Tribunal was required to assume that planning permission for residential development would have been granted on his land, but to make appropriate deductions from the ‘dead ripe value’ in the real world, in order to reflect the enhancement of value due to the public’s knowledge of the authority’s involvement in the scheme, including its investment in infrastructure, and also to the consequent acceleration of development.
Widgery LJ spoke of: ‘the well known rule of practice that if a point is not taken in the court of trial, it cannot be taken in the appeal court unless that court is in possession of all the material necessary to enable it to dispose of the matter finally, without injustice to the other party, and without recourse to a further hearing below.’ and ‘Whenever land is to be compulsorily acquired, this must be in consequence of some scheme or undertaking or project. Unless there is some scheme or undertaking or project, compulsory powers of acquisition will not arise at all, and it would, I think, be a great mistake if we tended to focus our attention on the word ‘scheme’ as though it had some magic of its own. It is merely synonymous with the other words to which I have referred, and the purpose of the so called Pointe Gourde rule is to prevent the acquisition of the land being at a price which is inflated by the very project or scheme which gives rise to the acquisition.
The extent of the scheme is a matter of fact in every case, as is shown by the decision in Fraser v Fraserville City [1917] A.C. 187 to which Lord Denning M.R. has referred. It is for the tribunal of fact to consider just what activities-past, present or future-are properly to be regarded as the scheme within the meaning of this proposition.’
Lord Denning MR: ‘A scheme is a progressive thing. It starts vague and known to few. It becomes more precise and better known as time goes on. Eventually it becomes precise and definite and known to all. Correspondingly, its impact has a progressive effect on values. At first it has little effect because it is so vague and uncertain. As it becomes more precise and better known, so its impact increases until it has an important effect. It is this increase, whether big or small, which is to be disregarded at the time when the value is to be assessed.’

Judges:

Widgery LJ, Lord Denning MR, Megaw LJ

Citations:

[1971] 1 WLR 302

Statutes:

Land Compensation Act 1961 6(1)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Explained – Pointe Gourde Quarrying and Transport Co Ltd v Sub-Intendant of Crown Lands PC 29-Jul-1947
Under a wartime agreement in 1941 the UK government agreed to lease to the US Government land in Trinidad on which the US could establish a naval base. To do this the Crown acquired the Pointe Gourde land for its limestone quarry which would be used . .
Cited – Fraser v City of Fraserville PC 1917
One ground on which the arbitrators’ valuation award on a compulsory purchase, was set aside was that, in valuing the falls of a river and adjacent land acquired for electricity generation purposes, the arbitrators had taken into account the . .

Cited by:

Cited – Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council v Tudor Properties Ltd and Others CA 19-Apr-2000
The court had to consider the compensation to be awarded on the compulsory purchase of land.
Held: The appeal failed. The tribunal had not erred in ascertaining the extent of the underlying scheme. In deciding that, they were entitled to have . .
Cited – Waters and others v Welsh Development Agency HL 29-Apr-2004
Land was to be compulsorily purchased. A large development required the land to be used to create a nature reserve. The question was how and if at all the value of the overall scheme should be considered when assessing the compensation for this . .
Cited – King v Jackson (T/a Jackson Flower Company) CA 16-Jul-1997
The defendant appealed an award of pounds 11,000 damages for unlawful eviction of his tenant. The tenant had found herself unable to pay the rent and had given notice to quit. She was then told to leave immediately. The judge awarded statutory . .
Cited – Jones v Governing Body of Burdett Coutts School CA 2-Apr-1998
The Employment Appeal Tribunal must give reasons for its decision, if it chooses to allow the amendment of appeal the papers in order to hear a point of law which had been conceded in the industrial tribunal. Citing Liverpool Corporation v Wilson, . .
Cited – J A Pye (Oxford) Limited v Kingswood Borough Council CA 6-Apr-1998
The purchase of land which was to form the last part of a development was to be valued without taking account of the enhanced value which would be attributed to the much larger scheme of development. To ascertain what is to be ignored by the valuer . .
Cited – Transport for London (London Underground Ltd) v Spirerose Ltd HL 30-Jul-2009
Compulsory Purchase Compensation – Land As it Is
The House considered the basis of calculation of compensation on the compulsory purchase of land without planning permission, but where permission would probably be granted. The appellant challenged the decision which had treated the probability as . .
Cited – Oakland v Wellswood (Yorkshire) Ltd CA 30-Jul-2009
The employer was in financial difficulties. A new company was formed by a customer to acquire its assets, and the employees, including the claimant were taken on by the new company. The claimant was dismissed within a year after. On claiming unfair . .
Cited – Myers v Milton Keynes Development Corporation CA 1974
Land was to be acquired for the development of a new town. The court faced the issue, in the context of a valuation for compulsory purchase, of whether the required disregard of any increase in value attributable to the ‘scheme’ meant that the . .
Cited – Roberts and Another v South Gloucestershire Council CA 7-Nov-2002
The landowner appealed against the compensation awarded for the compulsory acquisition of his land for use as a road. The owners had been compensated only for its agricultural value, but said that it should have allowed for its value for minerals . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Damages

Updated: 11 May 2022; Ref: scu.188871

Ministry of Defence v Ashman and Another: CA 3 May 1993

A person who has profited from trespassing on someone else’s land may be ordered to pay what are sometimes called ‘restitutionary damages’ to the landowner. Mesne profits can be calculated as the cost of alternative Local Authority Housing. Kennedy LJ said that in most cases the measure of damages to be paid by the trespasser in residential property will be calculated by reference to the ordinary letting value of the property in which the defendant remained. However, because the property was not normally let out on the open market and the trespasser was only in occupation because she had nowhere else to go, the value to the trespasser was different. Thus the injured party was entitled to what the trespasser would have to pay for suitable alternative accommodation, though that was more than she would have had to pay the Ministry by way of rent for the property itself.

Judges:

Kennedy LJ

Citations:

Ind Summary 03-May-1993, [1993] EGLR 102, (1993) 25 HLR 513, (1993) 66 PandCR 195

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Devenish Nutrition Ltd v Sanofi-Aventis Sa (France) and others CA 14-Oct-2008
The defendant had been involved in price fixing arrangements, and the claimant sought damages for breach of its proprietary rights. The claimant appealed refusal of an award an account of profits for what was akin to a breach of statutory duty.
Cited – Ramzan v Brookwide Ltd ChD 8-Oct-2010
The claimant owned a flying freehold room butting into the defendant’s property. Whilst the claimant’s property was unoccupied, the defendant broke through into the room, blocked off the door to the claimant’s property, and included the room in the . .
Cited – Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp and Others v Harris and Others ChD 5-Feb-2013
The court was asked whether a copyright owner has a proprietary claim to money derived from infringement of the copyright.
Held: He did not. No such argument could be shown to have suceeded before. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Housing

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.83741

Lunnun v Singh et Al: CA 19 Jul 1999

Where judgment had been entered on liability, the court could still hear any evidence on an issue as to the quantification of damages which did not of itself challenge the basis of the judgment. Findings of liability could not of themselves be conclusive as to the extent of causation.

Citations:

Times 19-Jul-1999

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.83242

Lunnun v Singh et Al: CA 11 Aug 1999

Where judgment had been entered on liability, the court could still hear any evidence on an issue as to the quantification of damages which did not of itself challenge the basis of the judgment. Findings of liability could not of themselves be conclusive as to the extent of causation.

Citations:

Gazette 11-Aug-1999

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.83243

Howkins and Harrison (A Firm) v Tyler and Another: CA 3 Aug 2000

Having paid out andpound;400,000 to a lender as damages for a negligent survey valuation after default in repayments by the defendant, the claimant also sought to recover the payment from the defendant under the Act. The application to stay the claim was refused. The Act could only operate for a claim for the same damage. What was lost by the lender from the default was not the same. Compensation was not the same as recovery of a debt, and the claimant could not claim a subrogation for the lender.

Citations:

Times 04-Aug-2000, Gazette 03-Aug-2000, [2001] Lloyds Rep PN 1

Statutes:

Civil Liability (Contributions) Act 1978 1(1)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – Howkins and Harrison (A Firm) v Tyler and Another ChD 9-Mar-2000
Having paid out andpound;400,000 to a lender as damages for a negligent survey valuation after default in repayments by the defendant, the claimant sought to recover the payment from the defendant under the Act. The application was refused. The Act . .

Cited by:

Cited – Eastgate Group Ltd v Lindsey Morden Group Inc, and Smith and Williamson (a Firm) CA 10-Oct-2001
The defendant faced a claim for breach of warranties given by vendors in a company share sale agreement. The sought a contribution from the purchasers accountants who had prepared figures upon which the purchase decision was based. The defendants’ . .
Appealed to – Howkins and Harrison (A Firm) v Tyler and Another ChD 9-Mar-2000
Having paid out andpound;400,000 to a lender as damages for a negligent survey valuation after default in repayments by the defendant, the claimant sought to recover the payment from the defendant under the Act. The application was refused. The Act . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Professional Negligence

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.81505

Gnitrow Ltd v Cape Plc: CA 18 Jul 2000

Where a main contractor had agreed through its insurers levels of compensation to be paid to workers affected by asbestosis, and sought to recover those damages from a sub-contractor, justice could only be served if the compensation agreement was disclosed to the defendant. If not then the defendant would be needlessly in the dark when considering a payment in. The judge need not however know of the terms of the agreement until an appropriate point in the trial.

Citations:

Times 18-Jul-2000

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Litigation Practice, Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.80886

Clark v Chief Constable of Cleveland Constabulary: CA 13 May 1999

The lower limit for interference by a court allowing an increase in an award for damages was reduced by the new Act, and a court on appeal, accordingly, could increase an award which was clearly inappropriate and too low.

Citations:

Times 13-May-1999, Gazette 26-May-1999

Statutes:

Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 8

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.79190

Ballantine v Newalls Insulation Co Ltd: CA 22 Jun 2000

The purpose of the rules was to provide statutory compensation for the pneumoconiosis suffered in this injury. Where therefore that person received damages for the same injury, the benefits received were to be deducted from the damages before payment.

Citations:

Times 22-Jun-2000, Gazette 29-Jun-2000

Statutes:

Pneumoconiosis etc (Workers Compensation) Act 1979

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Damages, Personal Injury, Benefits

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.78120

Applied Implants Technology Ltd and Others v Lufthansa Cargo Ag and Others: CA 17 May 2000

A part of a machine was packaged separately but with other parts of the same machine transported by air under one bill of lading. It was damaged.
Held: The compensation was to be calculated by reference to the weight of the single packaged part and not by reference to the weight of the larger combined package.

Citations:

Times 17-May-2000, Gazette 31-May-2000

Statutes:

Warsaw Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules regarding International Air Transport 1929

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Transport, Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.77839

Adcock v Co-Operative Insurance Society Ltd: CA 26 Apr 2000

The claimant claimed under his fire insurance with the defendants. He sought damages for their delay in processing the claim.
Held: The power to award interest on damages is discretionary. The judge had refused to allow interest, at a rate which applied at different times following the damage. He could do so, because of the claimant’s delay. However the court should also look at the fact that the defendant in this case had set aside sums for the payment of damages in this action, and that such a reduction in interest rates might also lead to a windfall, or an unjust enrichment of the defendant. Whilst the judge had not been entirely correct, his discretion was not to be interfered with.

Judges:

Waller LJ, Sir Christopher Slade

Citations:

Times 26-Apr-2000, [2000] EWCA Civ 117

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Supreme Court Act 1981 35A

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – London, Chatham and Dover Railway Co v South Eastern Railway Co HL 1893
The Lord Chancellor was considering the position of a creditor whose debtor refused to exchange accounts as agreed, thus preventing the creditor from quantifying the debt.
Held: The House declined to alter the rule in Page -v- Newman.
Cited – Jefford v Gee CA 4-Mar-1970
The courts of Scotland followed the civil law in the award of interest on damages. The court gave examples of the way in which they apply the ex mora rule when calculating the interest payable in a judgment. If money was wrongfully withheld, then . .
Cited – United Bank of Kuwait Ltd v Hammond and Others CA 1988
It will only be in the ordinary course of business of the firm for a solicitor to do an act where there was an underlying transaction of a kind which was part of the usual business of a solicitor. ‘On the facts represented to the [third party] would . .
Cited – Tate and Lyle Food Distribution Ltd v Greater London Council 1981
Forbes J considered the principles to be applied when considering the award of interest on damages between the date of the loss and the judgment: ‘Despite the way in which Lord Herschell LC in London, Chatham and Dover Railway Co v South Eastern . .
Cited – Shearson Lehman Hutton v Maclaine Watson (No 2) 1990
When a court orders repayment of a sum, with interest the rate of interest may be the commercial rate, which would normally be 1% above base rate, but is variable on appropriate evidence. . .

Cited by:

Cited – Cawsand Fort Management Company Ltd v Stafford and others CA 20-Nov-2007
The tenant had sought an order under the 1987 Act for the appointment of a manager of the apartments. The landlord appealed against the order saying that it could not apply to buildings which were not comprised in the buildings containing the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.77652

L Albert and Son v Armstrong Rubber Co: 1949

(United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit) A purchaser of machines designed to recondition rubber sought damages for breach of contract, namely, the cost of the foundation on which the machines were placed. However, the purchaser did not prove the earnings he would have received from the machines had they been in conformity with the contract. Nor did the defendant prove that the plaintiff would not have recovered his expenditure had the contract been performed. It appears that it was a case where it was difficult to know what the result of the contract would have been.
Held: Learned Hand CJ discussed a plaintiff’s choice of damages claim for breach of contract: ‘In cases where the venture would have proved profitable to the promisee there is no reason why he should not recover his expenses. On the other hand, on those occasions in which the performance would not have covered the promisee’s outlay, such a result imposes the risk of the promisee’s contract upon the promisor. We cannot agree that the promisor’s default in performance should under this guise make him an insurer of the promisee’s venture; yet it does not follow that the breach should not throw upon him the duty of showing that the value of the performance would in fact have been less than the promisee’s outlay. It is often very hard to learn what the value of the performance would have been; and it is a common expedient, and a just one, in such situations to put the peril of the answer upon that party who by his wrong has made the issue relevant to the rights of the other. On principle, therefore, the proper solution would seem to be that the promisee may recover his outlay in preparation for the performance, subject to the privilege of the promisor to reduce it by as much as he can show that the promisee would have lost, if the contract had been performed.’

Judges:

Learned Hand CJ

Citations:

(1949) 178 F. 2d 182

Jurisdiction:

United States

Cited by:

Cited – Parker and Another v SJ Berwin and Co and Another QBD 17-Dec-2008
The claimants sought damages from their former solicitors. They set out to purchase a football club, expending substantial sums for the purpose, relying on the defendants’ promised provision of service in finding and arranging the funding. They said . .
Cited – Omak Maritime Ltd v Mamola Challenger Shipping Co Ltd ComC 4-Aug-2010
Lost Expenses as Damages for Contract Breach
The court was asked as to the basis in law of the principle allowing a contracting party to claim, as damages for breach, expenditure which has been wasted as a result of a breach. The charterer had been in breach of the contract but the owner had . .
Cited – Bowlay Logging Limited v Domtar Limited 1978
(Canada) The parties contracted for the claimant to cut timber and the defendant to haul it. The plaintiff said that the defendant breached the contract by supplying insufficient trucks to haul the timber away, and claimed as damages his wasted . .
Cited – C and P Haulage v Middleton CA 27-Jun-1983
The parties entered into an agreement allowing the defendant to occupy the plaintiff’s land. They had disputed whether it was a licence or a lease. The occupier had expended sums on improving the premises, but had then been summarily ejected. He now . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

International, Contract, Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.278876

Carmichael v Caledonian Railway Co: HL 1870

Interest can be demanded only in virtue of a contract express or implied ‘or by virtue of the principal sum of money having been wrongfully withheld, and not paid on the day when it ought to have been paid.’ Interest was due when money was wrongfully withheld and not paid on the day on which it ought to have been paid.

Citations:

(1870) 8 M (HL) 119

Jurisdiction:

Scotland

Citing:

See Also – Carmichael and Others v Caledonian Railway Co SCS 26-Mar-1867
. .
Appeal from – Caledonian Railway Co v Carmichael and Others SCS 28-Jun-1870
. .

Cited by:

Cited – Sempra Metals Ltd v Inland Revenue Commissioners and Another HL 18-Jul-2007
The parties agreed that damages were payable in an action for restitution, but the sum depended upon to a calculation of interest. They disputed whether such interest should be calculated on a simple or compound basis. The company sought compound . .
Cited – Farstad Supply As v Enviroco Ltd SCS 14-Sep-2011
(Outer House) The parties had settled a claim for the loss by fire of an oil rig supply vessel. The parties now disputed whether the settlement carries interest under the Act. The parties’ insurers were concerned that the interest rate awarded under . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.260125

Fraser v Berkeley: 1836

The defendant had written a book and the plaintiff had written a rather caustic criticism of it which reflected not only on the defendant’s skill as an author but on his character and that of his family. This annoyed the defendant very much, and with his brother he went to the plaintiff’s shop and gave him a very severe beating indeed with his fists and a horse-whip.
Held: Lord Abinger in summing up told the jury that in assessing the damages they could properly take into account the plaintiff’s conduct and the imputations which he had made against the defendant and his family.

Judges:

Lord Abinger

Citations:

[1836] 7 Carrington and Payne 621

Cited by:

Cited – Lane v Holloway CA 30-Jun-1967
In the context of a fight with fists, ordinarily neither party has a cause of action for any injury suffered during the fight. But they do not assume ‘the risk of a savage blow out of all proportion to the occasion. The man who strikes a blow of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.258464

Clement v Dixon Jones: CA 2005

In a professional negligence claim where the claimant alleges negligence in defending a mortgagee possession action, and the claim engages the loss of chance principle, the question is not as to the likely outcome of the possession claim had it been defended properly, but the ‘prospects’ for their retention of the property if they had done so.

Judges:

Rix LJ

Citations:

[2005] PNLR 6

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Veitch and Another v Avery CA 12-Jul-2007
The claimants appealed the award of only nominal damages after they succeeded in their claim against their solicitors for negligence in their conduct of the defence of a mortgage possession action.
Held: The appeal failed. The judge was . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.254595

Pearson Education Ltd v Charter Partnership Ltd: CA 21 Feb 2007

The claimants were lessees of a building n which they stored their stock of unique historical books. The books were damaged beyond repair when the premises were flooded. They now sought damages from the building’s architects. The drainage system was inadequate. The inadequacy was known of because of a previous flood. The architects admitted that they might have been liable if the damage remained unknown, but that once it had flooded, the damages was no longer latent, and that it was reasonable for them to expect that the position would have been remedied.
Held: Neither possible principle enunciated in Baxall was of assistance to the present defendants. The present claimants should not be expected to have known of the danger. The first flood did not remove the later occupiers from the list of those to whom a care of duty was owed, nor broke the chain of causation.

Judges:

Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers LCJ, May LJ, Keene LJ

Citations:

Times 07-Mar-2007

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Negligence, Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.253209

Atlantic Shipping and Trading Co v Louis Dreyfus and Co: HL 1921

Lord Dunedin said: ‘My Lords in these commercial cases it is I think of the highest importance that authorities should not be disturbed and if your lordships find that a certain doctrine has been laid down in former cases and presumably acted upon you will not be disposed to alter that doctrine unless you think it clearly wrong.’

Judges:

Lord Dunedin

Citations:

[1921] 2 AC 250, [1922] 10 Ll Rep 703

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – The ‘Nukila’ CA 1987
Hobhouse LJ said: ‘Turning to the authorities it must at the outset be recognised that, whether or not they are strictly binding on us, they must, insofar as they represent the existing authoritative statements of the law only be departed from if . .
Cited – Transfield Shipping Inc of Panama v Mercator Shipping Inc of Monrovia ComC 1-Dec-2006
The owners made substantial losses after the charterers breached the contract by failing to redliver the ship on time as agreed.
Held: On the facts found the Owners’ primary claim is not too remote. To the knowledge of the Charterers, it was . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Litigation Practice, Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.246867

London and Overseas Freighters v Timber Shipping Co SA “The London Explorer”: HL 1972

The London Explorer was under a charter where the hire was ‘to continue until the hour of the day of her redelivery’. The charterers redelivered the ship about 3 months late because, although she had set out on a legitimate last voyage, she had been delayed by strikes at her last two discharging ports.
Held: The owners recovered for the additional hire at the charterparty rate even though the market rate during the overrun period was less than the charterparty rate.
Lord Morris: ‘Even though the time set out in a charterparty is not made of the essence so that continued use of the vessel after the stated time will not at once have the result that such continued use will be in breach of contract, it will be necessary that redelivery should be within a reasonable time. It might well be . . that with a clause similar to clause 4 a charterer would be liable to pay hire at the contractual rate to the time of actual redelivery and in addition (if the current rate exceeded the contractual rate) to pay damages in respect of his failure to redeliver within a reasonable time’.
Lord Reid said: ‘There is a controversy as to whether one can ever look at deleted words in an agreement. If the words were first inserted by the draftsman of the agreement and then deleted before signature then I have no doubt that they must not be considered in construing the agreement. They are in the same position as any other preliminary suggestion put forward and rejected before the final agreement was made. But it appears to me that striking out words from a printed form is quite a different matter. The process of adapting a printed form to make it express the parties’ intentions requires two things to be done. Those parts which are not to be part of the agreement are struck out and words are inserted to complete the rest of the form so as to express the agreement. There is no inference that in striking out words the parties had second thoughts: the words struck out were never put there by the parties or any of them or by their draftsman.’

Judges:

Lord Morris, Lord Reid

Citations:

[1971] 1 Lloyds Rep 523, [1972] AC 1

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Transfield Shipping Inc of Panama v Mercator Shipping Inc of Monrovia ComC 1-Dec-2006
The owners made substantial losses after the charterers breached the contract by failing to redliver the ship on time as agreed.
Held: On the facts found the Owners’ primary claim is not too remote. To the knowledge of the Charterers, it was . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.246742

Watson Steamship Co v Merryweather and Co: 1913

The vessel owners sought damages when the ship was redelivered 20 days late by the charterers. The special case as pleaded was ‘A claim was made by the owners for damages for dislocation of business and other special damage, but there was no evidence before the umpire that such damages were within the contemplation of the parties at the time the said charterparty was entered into, and he therefore found that such damages were too remote.
The umpire directed and awarded that the charters should pay to the owners andpound;100, being damages for 20 days detention of the Hugin calculated at the difference between the chartered rate and the current rate for the said period’. Was there a breach of contract?
Held: There had been the breach alleged. The court upheld the award. Whatever the ‘dislocation of business’ was, the umpire was not able to find that it was something contemplated by the parties. Damages were awarded on the market versus charterparty rate basis.

Judges:

Atkin J

Citations:

[1913] 18 Com Cas 294

Cited by:

Cited – Transfield Shipping Inc of Panama v Mercator Shipping Inc of Monrovia ComC 1-Dec-2006
The owners made substantial losses after the charterers breached the contract by failing to redliver the ship on time as agreed.
Held: On the facts found the Owners’ primary claim is not too remote. To the knowledge of the Charterers, it was . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.246740

R and H Hall Ltd v WH Pim Junr and Co Ltd: HL 1928

Pim sold a cargo of wheat to Hall at 51s 9d a quarter. Hall had agreed to sell a similar cargo to Williams at 56s 9d a quarter, and Williams to sell again Suzuki at 59s 3d a quarter. Pim bought a cargo of wheat on board the ‘S.S. Indianic’ at 60s a quarter. Pim later secured agreement with all concerned that the sales from Pim to Hall and from Hall to Williams and from Williams to Suzuki should be treated, in each case, as resales of the cargo the subject of the preceding purchase in the chain. Pim gave notice appropriating the Indianic cargo to its contract with Hall and that notice was passed down the chain. Pim sold the Indianic cargo to Rank at 59s 11.5d a quarter. When the cargo arrived the market price was 53s 9d a quarter. Having sold the cargo to Rank Pim could not deliver the documents covering the cargo to Hall. The Court of Appeal had held that Hall’s damages were limited to the difference between the market (53s 9d) and the contract (51s 9d) price at the date of the breach. Hall claimed the difference between the price at which they had bought (51s 9d) and the price (56s 9d) under their sub-sale to Williams.
Held: The House restored the decision of Rowlatt J that Hall was entitled to recover the difference between the price at which it had bought and the price at which it had resold the cargo together with an indemnity for the damages and costs which Hall would have to pay to the buyers who had brought from them. It treated the question as one of the application of the rule in Hadley v Baxendale.
Viscount Haldane said the contract was not merely for the sale of corn in bulk but for the sale of the cargo of an individual ship, either specifically identified or to be identified, by which the seller contracted to put the buyer in a position to fulfil such sub-contract as he might make. It did not matter whether the buyer was likely to enter into a sub-contract. He reached this conclusion on the terms of the contract alone without reference to what took place between the parties after the contract was made. Condition 1 of the contract had provided for notice of appropriation to be given by Pim, ‘and by each other seller’; the arbitration clause referred to intermediate buyers and sellers and to ‘the last buyer’; and the strike clause referred to notices being ‘passed on in due course’.
Viscount Dunedin said that both parties knew it was common practice to resell cargoes whilst afloat, that, apart from common knowledge, the contract itself showed this, and that the correspondence as to the actual appropriation of the vessel was additional proof, if proof were needed, of the familiarity of Pim with the practice of successive resales of cargo afloat. Pim knew as soon as it nominated a cargo that only delivery of that cargo could satisfy the contract, and it was sufficient to give rise to liability for loss of profit that there was an even chance of a sub-sale taking place.
Lord Shaw agreed with Viscount Haldane: ‘My principal reason is that I think that the two parties had actually provided for the very case of sub-sales’. He stated the proposition that a ‘not unlikely’ result of the breach must be reckoned to be within the contemplation of the parties as to its breach. He deprecated an ‘ultra analysis’ of Baron Alderson’s sentence into two portions ‘which are to be reckoned as necessarily and always two distinct and different cases’ and said: ‘These two things, arising naturally from or the probable result of the breach, need not be antithetically treated; they may run into each other and, indeed, be one. I think for instance, that in this case, where the string of sales was to the knowledge of the breaker of the contract within the very scope of the conditions of his bargain, it was fairly and reasonably to be expected, not only, to use the language of the judgment as ‘arising naturally i.e. according to the usual course of things, from such breach’, but also ‘such as may reasonably be supposed to have been in the contemplation of both parties, at the time that they made the contract, as the probable result of the breach of it’. What may be regarded as arising naturally from the breach, may itself be dependent on what is known to the parties at the time of the contract as a possible result of the breach.
Lord Phillimore thought the question to be one of contract. Notice or knowledge of an intended use would not do of itself: ‘But if the tribunal which tries the case comes to the conclusion that he contracted to sell or to carry on terms that he should be responsible for damage which might accrue from his failure to provide for any one of certain objects then he must be held liable’. The contract terms were such that the sellers ‘must be taken to have consented’ to a state of affairs whereby the purchasers would sell on in a string of sales and ‘thereby to have made themselves liable to pay to the appellants their profit on resale’.
Lord Blanesburgh held that it must be taken to have been within the contemplation of the parties that in the event of default by the sellers in tendering documents ‘their liability to their buyers in damages would be in exact correspondence with what it would have been if the contract had been specific all through and if to the knowledge of the sellers the sub-contract had at the date of that contract then existed or been in contemplation’.

Judges:

Viscount Haldane, Viscount Dunedin, Lord Shaw, Lord Phillimore, Lord Blanesburgh

Citations:

[1928] 30 LLR 159

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Transfield Shipping Inc of Panama v Mercator Shipping Inc of Monrovia ComC 1-Dec-2006
The owners made substantial losses after the charterers breached the contract by failing to redliver the ship on time as agreed.
Held: On the facts found the Owners’ primary claim is not too remote. To the knowledge of the Charterers, it was . .
Cited – James Finlay and Co Ltd v N V Kwik Tong HM CA 1929
It will be regarded as unreasonable to require a claimant to take steps which are likely to injure its commercial reputation, or otherwise t in a way it perceives to be commercially unwise, as a mitigation of damages.
Sankey LJ said of the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Contract

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.246868

Horace Holman Group Ltd v Sherwood International Group Ltd: TCC 2001

The defendants were to pay damages after failing to provide an adequate software package. The claimants included a claim for wasted time by their directors and staff in struggling with the inadequacies of the software provided.
Held: The claim was allowed.
The court cited Tate and Lyle, but said that the court did have some evidence of the amount of time spent by the directors and staff, albeit only in the form of a reconstruction from memory: ‘I cannot and do not say, in the absence of records there is to be no recovery.’
The court rejected a suggestion of the defendants that there were relevant distinctions between income-producing and ‘back office’ employees or indeed between short periods and long periods of diverted time. ‘In all cases, the claimants were paying for time which was to be a benefit to them and they lost the benefit of that time’. The judge had accepted the observation of the claimants’ forensic accountant that ‘every employer values each employee at more than the employee is paid, otherwise there is no point in employing him.’

Judges:

Judge Bowsher QC

Citations:

[2001] All ER (D) 83

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Tate and Lyle Distribution v Greater London Council 1982
The defendants were liable to the claimants for having failed to dredge silt which they had caused to be accumulated when constructing new piers for the Woolwich ferry and which had obstructed the claimants’ use of their barge moorings. The result . .

Cited by:

Cited – Aerospace Publishing Ltd and Another v Thames Water Utilities Ltd CA 11-Jan-2007
A substantial private archive of valuable books had been damaged when the defendant’s water mains burst. The court was asked to assess the value.
Held: The water company’s appeal failed save to a small extent. The articles were of substantial . .
Appeal from – Horace Holman Group Ltd v Sherwood International Group Ltd CA 7-Feb-2002
. .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.247680

Mottram Consultants Ltd v Bernard Sunley and Sons Ltd: HL 1975

Stone panels which had been fixed to the external walls of a school fell off, owing to defective fixing by the contractor.
Held: The contractor was liable for the cost of reinstating the stone panels, calculated at the date when the defect was discovered.
The parties disputed the interpretation of a building contract. The issue was whether or not it was the common intention of the parties to deny the right to the defendant to set-off against the amount claimed in a certificate. The certificates were issued by an architect. The House considered whether there existed a general rule for construing a contract, ‘namely, that one should approach each case without any ‘parti pris’ in favour or against the existence of a right of set off, though one must bear in mind the principle established in Mondel v Steel.’
Held: Even if there was a magic formula, meaning that the words ‘set-off’ or equivalent had to be used in express terms, then the failure to use it does not necessarily mean that that was not what the parties intended in the particular case. Lord Cross referred to the fact that the contract showed clearly that the proprietor was not entitled to withhold payment because of some allegation that there was an error made, and: ‘It was for the architect to put that right if need be in a monthly certificate. I think therefore that the Master was right to give Sunley judgment for the full sum claimed. . ‘
Lord Cross of Chelsea said: ‘When the parties use a printed form and delete parts of it one can, in my opinion pay regard to what has been deleted as part of the surrounding circumstances in the light of which one must construe what they have chosen to leave in. The fact that they deleted (iii) shows that these parties directed their minds (inter alia) to the question of deductions under the principle of Mondel v Steel [(1841) 8 M. and W. 858] and decided that no such deductions should be allowed.’

Judges:

Lord Cross of Chelsea, Lord Hodgson and Lord Wilberforce

Citations:

[1975] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 197

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – BOC Group Plc v Centeon Llc and Centeon Bio-Services Inc CA 29-Apr-1999
The court was asked whether a clause in a share sale agreement setting out the payment obligation worked to preclude the purchaser from exercising a right of set-off when the time comes to pay a later instalment of the price.
Held: The appeal . .
Cited – Ruxley Electronics and Construction Ltd v Forsyth HL 29-Jun-1995
Damages on Construction not as Agreed
The appellant had contracted to build a swimming pool for the respondent, but, after agreeing to alter the specification to construct it to a certain depth, in fact built it to the original lesser depth, Damages had been awarded to the house owner . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.244717

Sampson v Wilson: 1994

The court considered the dangers of a double award of damages for a landlord’s breach of his covenant for quiet enjoyment.

Citations:

[1994] 26 HLR 486

Statutes:

Housing Act 1988 27(5)

Cited by:

Cited – Abbott v Bayley CA 20-Jan-1999
Appeal against award of damages for breach by landlord of covenant for quiet enjoyment and under the 1988 Act.
Held: The landlord’s appeal failed. ‘There is no fixed point at which it can be said that breaches of the covenant of quiet . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Housing, Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.244664

Amec Developments Limited v Jury’s Hotel Management (UK) Limited: 2001

A hotel had been built so as to encroach across a building line in breach of covenant, allowing the hotel to have 25 more rooms than it would otherwise have enjoyed. The court considered conflicting evidence as to the capital value of the additional rooms.
Held: The court set out in detail its approach to the hypothetical negotiation for a licence to breach the covenant in great detail, including a preference for Amec’s method of arriving at the incremental value of the additional rooms, and awarded andpound;375,000, nearly 20 per cent of the increased value on that view. The correct date for assessing damages is normally the date before the building works in question are started.

Judges:

Anthony Mann QC

Citations:

[2001] EGLR 81

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Small v Oliver and Saunders (Developments) Ltd ChD 25-May-2006
The claimant said his property had the benefit of covenants in a building scheme so as to allow him to object to the building of an additional house on a neighbouring plot in breach of a covenant to build only one house on the plot. Most but not all . .
Cited – WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) and Another v World Wrestling Federation Entertainment Inc CA 2-Apr-2007
The parties had disputed use of the initals WWF, with a compromise reached in 1994 allowing primary use by the Fund with restricted use by the Federation. The Federation now appealed an award of damages made after a finding of a breach of the . .
Cited – Tamares (Vincent Square) Ltd. v Fairpoint Properties (Vincent Square) Ltd ChD 8-Feb-2007
The defendant had been found liable for infringing the claimant’s right of light. The court considered the proper measure of damages.
Held: The court should ask what might be the fair result of a hypothetical negiation for the sale of the . .
Cited – Harris v Williams-Wynne ChD 11-Feb-2005
The parties agreed in sale agreement for a plot of land that the buyer would not erect any additional building. He did so, and when he came to try to sell it the original vendor objected. The purchaser’s solicitors registered the agreement for sale. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Litigation Practice, Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.242395

Bacon v Cooper (Metals) Ltd: 1982

A machine, a fragmentiser was broken. The defendant had supplied unsuitable scrap to be fed into the machine in breach of contract. The rotor had broken which would normally have had a life of 7 years of which it had nearly four years to run. The defendant said that the claimant should get only a proportion of the cost of a new rotor, reflecting the remaining life of the damaged rotor.
Held: The claimant was entitled to the full cost of a new rotor. ‘In my view the law will not place this burden on the plaintiff to relieve the defendant from some of the unavoidable consequences of their wrong. I consider the plaintiff is entitled to recover the whole cost of the replacement rotor.’

Judges:

Cantley J

Citations:

[1982] 1 All ER 397

Citing:

Cited – The Gazelle 1844
A vessel was damaged by collision. What was the amount to be paid to the owners of the damaged vessel for its repair?
Held: The measure of the indemnification to which the owner of the damaged vessel was entitled was co-extensive with the . .
Cited – Harbutt’s Plasticine Ltd v Wayne Tank and Pump Co Ltd CA 1970
The plaintiffs’ factory in an old mill, burned down because Wayne Tank had installed a pipeline made of unsuitable and dangerous plastic material and wrapped in heating tape attached to a useless thermostat. It had been switched on and the plant . .

Cited by:

Cited – Pegler Ltd v Wang (UK) Ltd TCC 25-Feb-2000
Standard Conract – Wide Exclusions, Apply 1977 Act
The claimant had acquired a computer system from the defendant, which had failed. It was admitted that the contract had been broken, and the court set out to decide the issue of damages.
Held: Even though Wang had been ready to amend one or . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.238590

Moore v DER Ltd: 1971

Where there is no ready second hand market for goods, or where there might be uncertainty as to the reliability of such goods, no credit need be given for the fact that a new and up-to-date replacement has been purchased.

Citations:

[1971] 1 WLR 1476

Cited by:

Cited – Pegler Ltd v Wang (UK) Ltd TCC 25-Feb-2000
Standard Conract – Wide Exclusions, Apply 1977 Act
The claimant had acquired a computer system from the defendant, which had failed. It was admitted that the contract had been broken, and the court set out to decide the issue of damages.
Held: Even though Wang had been ready to amend one or . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.238592

Samuel Montagu Ltd v Swiss Air Transport Co Ltd: CA 1966

The plaintiff contended that the ‘unless’ clause in the air waybill did not comply with Article 8 (q) of Unamended Warsaw Convention, so that the Article 22 limitation on its right to receive the full value of four lost boxes of gold was inapplicable.
Held: Lord Denning disposed of the contention: ‘I do not think we should give a strict interpretation to article 8(q) in the Convention. We should not give it so rigid an interpretation as to hamper the conduct of business. I do not interpret the article as meaning that the waybill must contain the statement verbatim. It is sufficient if it contains a statement to the like effect. Moreover, the carriage cannot be subject to all the rules relating to liability established by the Convention: for some relate to goods, others to passengers, others to luggage. It follows that (q) is satisfied if the statement says that the carriage is subject to the rules so far as the same are applicable to the carriage. If that is sufficient, it must also be sufficient to say that the carriage is subject to the rules except in so far as the same are not applicable to the carriage. The next step is plain. If that is sufficient, it must also be sufficient to say that the carriage is subject to the rules except so far as it is not international carriage. Hence it is sufficient to say ‘unless such carriage is not international carriage as defined by the Convention’. It is just another way of saying that the carriage is subject to the rules so far as the same are applicable.
Another way of looking at the statement is to read it in conjunction with the carriage stated on the face of the document, which was London to Zurich. Everyone concerned with the waybill knew that carriage from London to Zurich was international carriage. To those persons (and no one else matters) the words ‘unless such carriage is not international carriage as defined by the Convention’ were mere surplusage. They added nothing. They were inapplicable to the circumstances of this carriage and could be ignored.’

Judges:

Lord Denning

Citations:

[1966] 2 QB 306, [1966] 1 All ER 814, [1966] 2 WLR 854

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Fujitsu Computer Products Corp and others v Bax Global Inc and others ComC 9-Nov-2005
A substantial number of hard disk drives were to be transported by the defendants by air. They were stolen. The defendant sought to limit its liability onder the Act. The claimant said it had been an inside job within Bax. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Transport, Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.234849

Building and Civil Engineering Holidays Scheme Management Ltd v Post Office: CA 1966

A question arose as to whether the stamps the Post Office lost, which if they had been stolen would have been sold in the thieves’ market, had a ‘market value’ within the meaning of the section.
Held: The buyer, the seller and the market considered may be hypothetical. Lord Denning excluded illegitimate transactions from the determination of market value. Russell LJ excluded the thieves’ market in the lost holiday stamps.
Lord Denning MR said: ‘There was only one seller of these stamps (at any rate in the legitimate market) and that was the plaintiff company. They sold them at their face value. But there were thousands of buyers. And they all paid the face value. The market value was clearly the face value.’ and ‘An action against a bailee can often be put, not as an action in contract or tort, but as an action on its own, sui generis, arising out of the possession had by the bailee of the goods’.
Pearson LJ said: ‘For the purposes of the present case, I think it [the expression ‘market value’] could be sufficiently defined as the uniform or average price or consideration for which the article in question is ordinarily bought and sold or acquired and disposed of in legitimate transactions. In some other case it might be necessary to resort to surreptitious transactions in search of ‘market value’: Mouat v Betts Motors Ltd [1959] AC 71, 82. There is no such necessity in this case, as there is a normal cycle of transactions, in which the ownership of the stamps is transferred and the price or consideration involved is always equal to the face value.’

Judges:

Lord Denning MR and Pearson LJ, Russell LJ

Citations:

[1966] 1 QB 247

Statutes:

Crown Proceedings Act 1947 9(2)(b)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – HM Revenue and Customs, Regina (on the Application of) v Raymond Machell QC and others Admn 21-Nov-2005
The claimant had had goods taken and destroyed by Revenue and Customs, which had been found to be wrongfully condemned. They had been awarded the market value of the goods at UK prices, though they had been bought in France.
Held: The market . .
Cited – Islam, Regina v HL 10-Jun-2009
The defendant appealed against a confiscation order saying that it should not have been set at values which reflected the black market value of the drugs he had imported.
Held: The appeal failed. The court could take account of the illegal . .
Cited – Islam, Regina v HL 10-Jun-2009
The defendant appealed against a confiscation order saying that it should not have been set at values which reflected the black market value of the drugs he had imported.
Held: The appeal failed. The court could take account of the illegal . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.235498

J and E Hall Ltd v Barclay: 1937

The company had erected and tested two experimental davits for the appellant. They were then taken down and left unused for many years. The parties disputed the account. The company claimed also for damages for detinue or conversion of the davits which had eventually sold as scrap. The judge had awarded the scrap value of the equipment as sold.
Held: The company should have been awarded the values of the equipment sold, at the price of similar articles in the market. In this case there was no such second hand market, and the meausre was the cost of buying alternatives.

Citations:

[1937] 3 All ER 620

Cited by:

Cited – HM Revenue and Customs, Regina (on the Application of) v Raymond Machell QC and others Admn 21-Nov-2005
The claimant had had goods taken and destroyed by Revenue and Customs, which had been found to be wrongfully condemned. They had been awarded the market value of the goods at UK prices, though they had been bought in France.
Held: The market . .
Cited – Penelope Wilson v Howard (Pawnbrokers) Ltd CA 4-Feb-2005
The customer challenged a series of pawn agreements. The broker appealed the finding that the contracts were invalid, on the basis that the judgment had created an unjust enrichment.
Held: The appeal failed: ‘in pawn transactions the debtor is . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.235496

Cook v Swinfen: 1966

Citations:

[1966] 1 WLR 635

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Appeal from – Cook v Swinfen CA 1967
The plaintiff could not recover damages for the mental distress of conducting litigation. The court found it difficult to draw the line as to where such damage could be identified. In this case the damage could not reasonably be said to have flowed . .
Cited – Finecard International Ltd (T/A the Ninja Corporation) v Urquhart Dyke and Lord (A Firm) and Another ChD 10-Nov-2005
The defendants sought an interim ruling that they were not the cause of the claimant’s losses. They had acted as patent agents to license to exploit the claimant’s patent in the UK. They alleged that the failure to complete the registration of the . .
Cited – Bradford and Bingley Plc v Rashid HL 12-Jul-2006
Disapplication of Without Prejudice Rules
The House was asked whether a letter sent during without prejudice negotiations which acknowledged a debt was admissible to restart the limitation period. An advice centre, acting for the borrower had written, in answer to a claim by the lender for . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Professional Negligence, Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.234847

Tate and Lyle Distribution v Greater London Council: 1982

The defendants were liable to the claimants for having failed to dredge silt which they had caused to be accumulated when constructing new piers for the Woolwich ferry and which had obstructed the claimants’ use of their barge moorings. The result had been that the claimants themselves had had to dredge the silt and, as part of their claim, they claimed managerial and supervisory expenses referable to that operation.
Held: The expenditure of management time by a company was a proper head of loss. Although difficult, it was possible to record the expenditure of management time and the court was not prepared to proceed on the basis of allowing 1% of the claim which was ‘pure speculation’. Since no evidence was adduced to quantify the expenditure of management time in that case the claim failed.
Forbes J said: ‘I have no doubt that the expenditure of managerial time in remedying an actionable wrong done to a trading concern can properly form the subject matter of a head of special damage. In a case such as this it would be wholly unrealistic to assume that no such additional managerial time was in fact expended. I would also accept that it must be extremely difficult to quantify. But modern office arrangements permit of the recording of the time spent by managerial staff on particular projects. I do not believe that it would have been impossible for the plaintiffs in this case to have kept some record to show the extent to which their trading routine was disturbed by the necessity for continual dredging sessions.’
The court rejected a submission that, when considering an award of interest under the 1838 Act, the Court should look at what the receiving party would in fact have done with the money if it had been paid earlier. Forbes J said: ‘I feel satisfied that in commercial cases the interest is intended to reflect the rate at which the plaintiff would have had to borrow money to supply the place of that which was withheld. I am also satisfied that one should not look at any special position in which the plaintiff may have been; one should disregard, for instance, the fact that a particular plaintiff, because of his personal situation, could only borrow money at a very high rate or, on the other hand, was able to borrow at specially favourable rates. The correct thing to do is to take the rate at which plaintiffs in general could borrow money.’
The particular Plaintiff’s personal situation was irrelevant: ‘the proper question is: At what rate could the plaintiff borrow the required sum and not what return could the plaintiff have expected if he had invested it? It is immaterial, therefore, to consider, as Mr. Davies [Counsel for the defendant] suggested, whether the plaintiff could have used the money profitably in his own business or what rate of profit he could have expected to achieve by so doing.’

Judges:

Forbes J

Citations:

[1982] 1 WLR 149

Statutes:

Judgments Act 18838

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – The Kumanovo 1998
The court was requested to apply the standard allowance to a claim by cargo owners arising out of a collision.
Held: The court would not do so. There was no evidence as to what the cargo owners did as a result of the loss of their cargo, and . .
Cited – Carisbrooke Shipping Cv5 v Bird Port Ltd ComC 13-Sep-2005
. .
Cited – Admiral Management Services Ltd v Para-Protect Europe Ltd and Others ChD 4-Mar-2002
The claimants suspected the defendants of wrongfully using their confidential information. Their staff made an initial investigation. They obtained a search and seizure order; and the material seized was examined by the staff. A Tomlin Order was . .
Cited – Standard Chartered Bank v Pakistan National Shipping Corporation; Seaways Maritime Limited; Oakprime International Limited; Arvind Mehra and Sgs United Kingdom Limited CA 26-Jan-2001
As part of its attempt to mitigate its loss caused by deceit perpetrated in relation to it by the defendants, the claimant bank presided over the sale of a cargo of bitumen in Vietnam. To do this, it sent one of its officers, to Vietnam on two . .
Cited – Horace Holman Group Ltd v Sherwood International Group Ltd TCC 2001
The defendants were to pay damages after failing to provide an adequate software package. The claimants included a claim for wasted time by their directors and staff in struggling with the inadequacies of the software provided.
Held: The claim . .
Cited – Aerospace Publishing Ltd and Another v Thames Water Utilities Ltd CA 11-Jan-2007
A substantial private archive of valuable books had been damaged when the defendant’s water mains burst. The court was asked to assess the value.
Held: The water company’s appeal failed save to a small extent. The articles were of substantial . .
Cited – R+V Versicherung Ag v Risk Insurance and Reinsurance Solutions Sa and others ComC 27-Jan-2006
It had held that the defendant insurance intermediaries were liable to the claimants, a German reinsurance company, because of a conspiracy to defraud the claimants on the part of one of the defendants’ employees. The court had to decide issues of . .
Cited – Sabic UK Petrochemicals Ltd v Punj Lloyd Ltd TCC 10-Oct-2013
Dispute as to the approach applicable on calculation of statutory interest on judgment.
Held: Interest was awarded at the normal commercial rate. The correct question was how the Claimant ‘could have put itself in possession of the funds that . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.230133

Attorney General of Ceylon v Mackie: PC 1952

The House considered how to value a company. The possibility that a business might be sold as a going concern for a price equal to the net realisable value of the assets employed was envisaged: ‘If it is proved in a particular case that at the relevant date the business could not have been sold for more than the value of its tangible assets, then that must be taken to be its value as a going concern.’

Judges:

Lord Reid

Citations:

[1952] 2 All ER 775

Cited by:

Cited – Kieth Platt v Colin Platt and Another CA 13-Dec-2000
The applicant appealed an order setting aside transfers to him of shares in a family company, found to have been made after misrepresentation and a breach of fiduciary duty. Three companies owned by the family had fallen into difficulties, and the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Company, Damages

Updated: 10 May 2022; Ref: scu.229778

Ryan v Liverpool Health Authority: 2001

Citations:

[2001] All ER (D) 15

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – A v The Archbishop of Birmingham QBD 30-Jun-2005
Assessment of damages following child abuse by Catholic priest.
Held: General damages of andpound;50,000 were in line with Coxon and were approved. A had not been shown to be, and is not, incapable of managing his affairs. The court differed . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury, Damages

Updated: 09 May 2022; Ref: scu.228420

Sotiros Shipping Inc v Sameiet: The Solholt: 1981

The seller did not deliver the vessel by the contractual date for delivery. The buyer exercised his right to cancel and to recover his deposit. He also claimed damages because the vessel was worth $500,000 more on the delivery date than she had been when the contract was made.
Held: A reasonable buyer would have offered, after cancellation, to take the vessel after all and that his loss was attributable to his own unreasonable conduct in failing to make such an offer (which would have been accepted by the seller).
The expression that a vessel had been ‘fixed subject to details’ means that ‘the main terms were agreed, but until the subsidiary terms and the details had also been agreed no contract existed’.

Judges:

Staughton J

Citations:

[1981] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 574

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Appeal from – 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 . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Damages

Updated: 09 May 2022; Ref: scu.223527

Multigroup Bulgaria Holding AD v Oxford Analytica Ltd: 2001

An article defaming an identifiable individual would give rise to a cause of action even where no one reading the article had prior knowledge of the victim. It could not seriously be suggested that ‘under English law an individual human being has to surmount a preliminary hurdle in order to bring defamation proceedings by showing an established reputation’.

Judges:

Eady J

Citations:

[2001] EMLR 737

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Dow Jones and Co Inc v Jameel CA 3-Feb-2005
Presumption of Damage in Defamation is rebuttable
The defendant complained that the presumption in English law that the victim of a libel had suffered damage was incompatible with his right to a fair trial. They said the statements complained of were repetitions of statements made by US . .
Cited – Dhir v Saddler QBD 6-Dec-2017
Slander damages reduced for conduct
Claim in slander. The defendant was said, at a church meeting to have accused the client of threatening to slit her throat. The defendant argued that the audience of 80 was not large enough.
Held: ‘the authorities demonstrate that it is the . .
Cited – Dhir v Saddler QBD 6-Dec-2017
Slander damages reduced for conduct
Claim in slander. The defendant was said, at a church meeting to have accused the client of threatening to slit her throat. The defendant argued that the audience of 80 was not large enough.
Held: ‘the authorities demonstrate that it is the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Defamation, Damages

Updated: 09 May 2022; Ref: scu.223354

Fishenden v Higgs and Hill Ltd: CA 1935

An injunction had been refused an injunction in respect of an infringement of an easement of light and awarded damages in lieu, even though the damages would be substantial because it had been shown that the plaintiff was plainly ‘only wanting money’. The court made use of a sky contour diagram. At first instance Crossman J had said: ‘that something like 50 per cent of an ordinary shaped room ought to be adequately lighted within this so-called grumble line.’
Held: The appeal against the finding of nuisance was dismissed. There was sufficient material before the learned judge to justify his conclusion that a nuisance would be committed. The court made use of daylight plans, grumble lines and the 50-50 rule.
Maugham LJ, whilst finding the daylight plans ‘exceedingly useful’ said that ‘no hard and fast mathematical standards can be applied’ and: ‘I should add one thing more with regard to the daylight plans, and that is that they may, I think, often be exceedingly misleading if the so-called 50-50 rule with regard to the amount of light which the rooms should enjoy is applied to a room which has any unusual depth in it, or applied to a room where the windows are in any sense unusual, because the light falling at table height from the window at a particular part of the room depends directly upon the depth of the room and the height of the window, and obviously those things have got to be carefully considered in applying the rule.’
Romer LJ spoke of the plaintiff’s complaint that ‘he now – that is to say, in the last few weeks – has to use artificial light to eat his lunch, though formerly he could do so by daylight’ and ‘In whatever neighbourhood a dwelling-house is situated, a man is entitled to have his ancient lights protected to this extent, that he may be able to go on having his lunch without the use of electric light in places where obviously he had so lunched.’ A L Smith LJ’s four tests in Shelfer ‘were not intended to be a fetter on the exercise of the court’s discretion’, and Romer LJ suggested that, while it was true that an injunction should be refused if those tests were satisfied, ‘it by no means follow[ed]’ that an injunction should be granted if they were not In deciding to overturn the injunction, Romer LJ was strongly influenced by the fact that the defendants had ‘acted fairly [and] in a neighbourly spirit’ as well as by the conduct of the plaintiff.

Judges:

Lord Hanworth MR and Romer LJ

Citations:

[1935] 153 LT 128

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Applied – Colls v Home and Colonial Stores Ltd HL 2-May-1904
The courts below had concluded that the defendant had infringed the plaintiff’s right to light, and had awarded an injunction.
Held: the appeal succeeded. The House set out the requirements for establishing the existence of a right to light. . .
Explained – Shelfer v City of London Electric Lighting Company, Meux’s Brewery Co v Same CA 1895
The plaintiff sought damages and an injunction for nuisance by noise and vibration which was causing structural injury to a public house.
Held: The court set out the rules for when a court should not grant an injunction for an infringement of . .

Cited by:

Cited – Midtown Ltd v City of London Real Property Company Ltd ChD 20-Jan-2005
Tenants occupied land next to land which was to be developed after compulsory acquisition. The tenants and the landlords asserted a right of light over the land, and sought an injunction to prevent the development. The developer denied that any . .
Cited – Regan v Paul Properties DPF No 1 Ltd and others ChD 27-Jul-2006
The claimant sought an injunction claiming that new building works were a nuisance in breaching his rights of light.
Held: The claim for an injunction failed. Whatever may be the position in cases of other wrongful conduct, in the case of an . .
Cited – Coventry and Others v Lawrence and Another SC 26-Feb-2014
C operated a motor racing circuit as tenant. The neighbour L objected that the noise emitted by the operations were a nuisance. C replied that the fact of his having planning consent meant that it was not a nuisance.
Held: The neighbour’s . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Land, Damages

Updated: 09 May 2022; Ref: scu.222598

Croke v Wiseman: CA 1982

The court considered the calculation of damages for loss of future earnings for a young child.

Judges:

Griffiths L

Citations:

[1982] 1 WLR 71

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Gregg v Scott HL 27-Jan-2005
The patient saw his doctor and complained about a lump under his arm. The doctor failed to diagnose cancer. It was nine months before treatment was begun. The claimant sought damages for the reduction in his prospects of disease-free survival for . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 09 May 2022; Ref: scu.222509

Goodfellow v Gray: 1899

A right of set-off could be allowed against damages due on a judgment in another action.

Citations:

[1899] 2 QB 498

Cited by:

Cited – Sonia Burkett, Regina (on the Application of) v London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham CA 15-Oct-2004
The appellant challenged an order for costs after dismissal of her application for judicial review of the respondent’s planning decision. The claimant had been granted legal aid at about the time of the bringing in of the new legal aid scheme. The . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 09 May 2022; Ref: scu.216503

Westward Hardy: 1964

The defendant injured the plaintiff with a scythe in circumstances where the defendant erroneously believed that she was on his land.
Held: the defendant’s conduct was wholly unjustifiable and malicious and awarded andpound;550 for damages including aggravated damages.

Judges:

Havers J

Citations:

[1964] CLY 994

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Richardson v Howie CA 13-Aug-2004
The claimant sought damages for assault. In the course of a tempestuous relationship, she said the respondent had physically assaulted her in Barbados. He was later convicted of soliciting her murder. She sought and was awarded aggravated damages, . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Torts – Other, Damages

Updated: 09 May 2022; Ref: scu.200252

Lisk-Carew v Birmingham City Council Dr S Sharp: CA 25 Apr 2004

The claimant’s complaints of unfair dismissal and race discrimination had been dismissed, but a claim of victimisation had succeeded.
Held: There was no inconsistency in the findings. In such a case, damages should be limited to the sum for injured feelings (in this case andpound;5,000).

Judges:

Kennedy, May, Hooper LJJ

Citations:

Times 07-Jun-2004, Gazette 20-May-2004

Statutes:

Race Relations Act 1976 1 2(1)

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – Lisk-Carew v Birmingham City Council, Sharp EAT 21-Oct-2003
EAT Race Discrimination – Indirect . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Discrimination, Damages

Updated: 09 May 2022; Ref: scu.199547