CH v A Metropolitan Council: CoP 28 Jul 2017

Application on behalf of the claimant for approval of a proposed settlement of his claim against the Local Authority.

Citations:

[2017] EWCOP 12

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Damages

Updated: 30 March 2022; Ref: scu.595870

Umbrella Care Ltd (In Provisional Liquidation) v Khair Un Nisa and Others: ChD 12 Aug 2020

Judges:

Trower J

Citations:

[2020] EWHC 2455 (Ch)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Damages

Updated: 30 March 2022; Ref: scu.654524

Zeromska-Smith v United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust: QBD 16 Apr 2019

The Claimant seeks damages for psychiatric injury arising out of the stillbirth of her daughter. Breach of duty is admitted, as is some damage arising out of the breach of duty. In those circumstances, judgment has been entered for the Claimant and the trial has concerned the extent of the damage caused and the quantification of the claim.

Judges:

Martin Spencer J

Citations:

[2019] EWHC 980 (QB)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

See Also – Zeromska-Smith v United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust QBD 8-Mar-2019
The Claimant sought damages for psychiatric injury arising out of the stillbirth of her daughter, and contended that if distressing details about the stillbirth and her subsequent mental illness were publicly reported, then that would further damage . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Personal Injury, Damages

Updated: 30 March 2022; Ref: scu.636177

Ifere v North Cumbria University Teachings Hospitals Trust: EAT 3 Aug 2017

EAT RACE DISCRIMINATION – Other losses
In the course of assessing the Claimant’s compensation for unlawful victimisation by the Respondent, the Employment Tribunal was required to consider whether it should award legal costs which the Claimant had incurred in defending proceedings before the Interim Orders Panel of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service. In its Liability Judgment and Reasons it had made findings which effectively precluded such an award. In its Remedy Judgment and Reasons it effectively reconsidered those findings and awarded compensation which reflected those legal costs. But, accepting that the Respondent had not understood it intended to take this course and had not made submissions upon it, the Employment Tribunal reconsidered the Liability Judgment; and revoked that part of the award. The Claimant appealed.
Held. The Employment Tribunal did not err in law in revoking that part of the award which required the Respondent to pay a sum to reflect the legal costs which the Claimant had incurred in defending proceedings before the Interim Orders Panel of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service.

Judges:

Richardson HHJ

Citations:

[2017] UKEAT 0073 – 17 – 0308

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Employment, Discrimination, Damages

Updated: 30 March 2022; Ref: scu.595005

South Gloucestershire Council v Burge and Another: CA 8 Sep 2017

Did the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) err in its approach to an award of compensation for loss incurred as a consequence of consent being refused for the felling of a tree protected by a Tree Preservation Order, whose roots were causing damage to a conservatory attached to a dwelling-house nearby?

Judges:

Lindblom, Irwin LJJ

Citations:

[2017] EWCA Civ 1313

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Land, Damages

Updated: 30 March 2022; Ref: scu.594995

[1986] 1 All ER 935

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, . .
Cited – Appleton and others v Garrett 1996
The plaintiffs were patients of the defendant dentist who had carried out unnecessary treatment on them; they claimed damages for trespass and sought aggravated damages.
Held: There was no reason in principle why awards of aggravated damages . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Torts – Other

Updated: 29 March 2022; Ref: scu.200253

England and Wales

Personal Injury, Damages

Updated: 26 March 2022; Ref: scu.633429

Updated: 24 March 2022; Ref: scu.581313

[1987] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 146

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – 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 . .

Road Traffic, Damages

Updated: 23 March 2022; Ref: scu.188646

Dodd Properties (Kent) Ltd v Canterbury City Council: CA 21 Dec 1979

The defendants had, in the course of building operations, caused nuisance and damage to the plaintiff’s building. The dispute was very lengthy, the costs of repair increased accordingly, and the parties now disputed the date at which damages fell to be assessed.
Held: It was not apparent why a tortfeasor must take his victim as he finds him in terms of exceptionally high or low earning capacity, but not in terms of pecuniosity or impecuniosity which may be their manifestation. It was commercially prudent for the plaintiff to wait to see if they could recover the costs of repairs. Referring to the Liesbosch: ‘As I understand Lord Wright’s speech, he took the view that, in so far as the plaintiffs had in fact suffered more than the loss assessed on a market basis, the excess flowed directly from their lack of means and not from the tortious act, or alternatively it was too remote in law. In modern terms, I think that he would have said that it was not foreseeable.’
Megaw LJ said: ‘In any case of doubt, it is desirable that the judge, having decided provisionally as to the amount of damages, should, before finally deciding, consider whether the amount conforms with the requirement of Lord Blackburn’s fundamental principle. If it appears not to conform, the judge should examine the question again to see whether the particular case falls within one of the exceptions of which Lord Blackburn gave examples, or whether he is obliged by some binding authority to arrive at a result which is inconsistent with the fundamental principle.’
And: ‘In this context the Defendants submitted that all owners of property suffered a loss of value when the market fell. They asked the hypothetical question – what would the Plaintiffs have done with their money if they had not bought the shop? If they are compensated for the fall in value of the shop, are they not being compensated for a loss which they would have suffered even if the Defendants had not been at fault, and therefore being over-compensated?’

Judges:

Donaldson LJ, Megaw LJ

Citations:

[1980] 1 WLR 433, [1980] 1 All ER 928, [1979] EWCA Civ 4

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Liesbosch Dredger (Owners of) v Owners of SS Edison, The Liesbosch HL 28-Feb-1933
The ship Edison fouled the moorings of the Liesbosch resulting in the total loss of the dredger when it sank. It had been engaged on work in the harbour under contract with the harbour board. All the owners’ liquid resources were engaged in the . .
Approved – Radford v De Froberville 2-Jan-1977
A contract was made for the sale of a plot of land adjoining a house belonging to the plaintiff (the vendor) but occupied by his tenants, under which the defendant (the purchaser) undertook to build a house on the plot and also to erect a wall to a . .
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 . .

Cited by:

Cited – Lagden v O’Connor HL 4-Dec-2003
The parties had been involved in a road traffic accident. The defendant drove into the claimant’s parked car. The claimant was unable to afford to hire a car pending repairs being completed, and arranged to hire a car on credit. He now sought . .
Cited – Smith New Court Securities Ltd v Scrimgeour Vickers HL 21-Nov-1996
The defendant had made misrepresentations, inducing the claimant to enter into share transactions which he would not otherwise have entered into, and which lost money.
Held: A deceitful wrongdoer is properly liable for all actual damage . .
Cited – Golden Strait Corporation v Nippon Yusen Kubishka Kaisha (‘The Golden Victory’) HL 28-Mar-2007
The claimant sought damages for repudiation of a charterparty. The charterpary had been intended to continue until 2005. The charterer repudiated the contract and that repudiation was accepted, but before the arbitrator could set his award, the Iraq . .
Cited – Watts and Co v Morrow CA 30-Jul-1991
The plaintiff had bought a house on the faith of the defendant’s report that there were only limited defects requiring repair. In fact the defects were much more extensive. The defendant surveyor appealed against an award of damages after his . .
Cited – Alcoa Minerals of Jamaica Inc v Herbert Broderick PC 20-Mar-2000
(Jamaica) Damage had been caused to the claimant’s property, but, because of his lack of funds, he was dependent upon the receipt of the damages to carry out the works of repair necessary. By the time the matter came to trial, inflation meant that . .
Cited – County Personnel (Employment Agency) Ltd v Alan R Pulver and Co (a Firm) CA 1987
The claimant sought damages after his negligent solicitors had saddled him with a ruinous underlease. They had had to buy themselves out of the lease. The court considered the date at which damages were to be calculated.
Held: The starting . .
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 . .
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: . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Negligence

Updated: 23 March 2022; Ref: scu.188649

Mentioned – Lagden v O’Connor HL 4-Dec-2003
The parties had been involved in a road traffic accident. The defendant drove into the claimant’s parked car. The claimant was unable to afford to hire a car pending repairs being completed, and arranged to hire a car on credit. He now sought . .
Overturned – Overseas Tankship (UK) Ltd v Morts Dock and Engineering Co Ltd (The Wagon Mound No 1) PC 18-Jan-1961
Foreseeability Standard to Establish Negligence
Complaint was made that oil had been discharged into Sydney Harbour causing damage. The court differentiated damage by fire from other types of physical damage to property for the purposes of liability in tort, saying ‘We have come back to the plain . .
Applied – 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 . .
Cited – Jones v Livox Quarries CA 25-Apr-1952
The plaintiff had ridden on the back of a kind of tractor in a quarry and in defiance of his employer’s instructions, risking being thrown off and injured. Another vehicle ran into the back of the first vehicle, injuring the plaintiff. He contended . .
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.

Damages, Negligence

Updated: 23 March 2022; Ref: scu.188647

(1889) 14 App Cas 337, [1889] 58 LJ Ch 864, [1889] 61 LT 265, [1889] 54 JP 148, [1889] UKHL 1

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Appeal from – Peek v Derry CA 1887
The court considered an action for damages for deceit: ‘As I understand the law, it is not necessary that the mis-statement should be the motive, in the sense of the only motive, the only inducement of a party who has acted to his prejudice so to . .
Cited – Edgington v Fitzmaurice CA 7-Mar-1885
False Prospectus – Issuers liable in Deceit
The directors of a company issued a prospectus, falsely stating that the proceeds were to be used to complete alterations to the buildings of the company, to purchase horses and vans and to develop the trade of the company. In fact it was to pay off . .

Cited by:

Cited – Mutual Life And Citizens’ Assurance Co Ltd And Another v Evatt PC 16-Nov-1971
The plaintiff had been an investor with the defendant. He asked them about an associated company. He was given advice which was incorrect. He claimed damages for negligence.
Held: The company was not itself in the business of giving such . .
Cited – McConnel v Wright CA 24-Jan-1903
In an action by a shareholder in a limited company against a director for damages for misrepresentation in the prospectus, the time at which the damage is ordered to be assessed, is the date of the allotment to the plaintiff; accordingly, where the . .
Cited – Smith New Court Securities Ltd v Scrimgeour Vickers HL 21-Nov-1996
The defendant had made misrepresentations, inducing the claimant to enter into share transactions which he would not otherwise have entered into, and which lost money.
Held: A deceitful wrongdoer is properly liable for all actual damage . .
Cited – Hedley Byrne and Co Ltd v Heller and Partners Ltd HL 28-May-1963
Banker’s Liability for Negligent Reference
The appellants were advertising agents. They were liable themselves for advertising space taken for a client, and had sought a financial reference from the defendant bankers to the client. The reference was negligent, but the bankers denied any . .
Cited – Nocton v Lord Ashburton HL 19-Jun-1914
The defendant solicitor had persuaded his client to release a charge, thus advancing the solicitor’s own subsequent charge on the same property. The action was started in the Chancery Division of the High Court. The statement of claim alleged fraud . .
Cited – Candler v Crane Christmas and Co CA 15-Dec-1950
Though the accounts of the company in which the plaintiff had invested had been carelessly prepared and gave a wholly misleading picture of the state of the company, the plaintiff could not recover damages. A false statement, carelessly, as . .
Cited – Heilbut Symons and Co v Buckleton HL 11-Nov-1912
In an action of damages for fraudulent misrepresentation and breach of warranty, the plaintiff founded on a conversation between himself and the defendants’ representative. In this conversation the plaintiff said-‘I understand that you are bringing . .
Cited – Grosvenor Casinos Ltd v National Bank of Abu Dhabi ComC 17-Mar-2008
Banker’s reference no guarantee
An Arab businessman lost pounds 18m at the claimant casino, and wrote scrip cheques against his account with the defendant. The claimant obtained judgment, but being unable to enforce that judgment pursued his bank. The club had used a system where . .
Cited – Robinson v National Bank of Scotland HL 10-Apr-1916
The pursuer claimed for false and fraudulent misrepresentation againt his bankers.
Held: A duty of care is not only owed in cases of fiduciary relationship in the narrow sense of relationships which had been recognised by the court of Chancery . .
Cited – Lindsay v O’Loughnane QBD 18-Mar-2010
The claimant had purchased Euros through a foreign exchange dealer. The dealer company became insolvent, causing losses to the claimant, who sought to recover from the company’s managing director, the defendant, saying that he was aware of the . .
Cited – John Ruskin College v Harley QBD 26-Nov-2013
A sum had been paid into court in 1997. Other sums were paid out, but this sum was left against costs liability. It was discovered much laterand paid out to the claimant. The former defendant now said that it had been paid out twice, and alleged . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Torts – Other

Leading Case

Updated: 11 February 2022; Ref: scu.180945

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 be secured by a first charge over the borrowers’ property. The solicitors had acted for both the bank and the borrowers. The bank appealed against rejection of its claim to be entitled to recover the entire sum it had paid, asserting a breach of trust, notwithstanding that its actual losses were rather less.
Held: The bank’s appeal failed. It was entitled to recompense only for the actual loss suffered. Payment of the amount claimed would be penal and retrograde.
Lord Toulson said: ‘The purpose of a restitutionary order is to replace a loss to the trust fund which the trustee has brought about. To say that there has been a loss to the trust fund in the present case of pounds 2.5m by reason of the solicitors’ conduct, when most of that sum would have been lost if the solicitors had applied the trust fund in the way that the bank had instructed them to do, is to adopt an artificial and unrealistic view of the facts.’
and: ‘in circumstances such as those in Target Holdings the extent of equitable compensation should be the same as if damages for breach of contract were sought at common law. That is not because there should be a departure in such a case from the basic equitable principles applicable to a breach of trust, whether by a solicitor or anyone else . . Rather, the fact that the trust was part of the machinery for the performance of a contract is relevant as a fact in looking at what loss the bank suffered by reason of the breach of trust, because it would be artificial and unreal to look at the trust in isolation from the obligations for which it was brought into being. I do not believe that this requires any departure from proper principles.’
Lord Reed concluded: ‘Some of the typical obligations of the trustee of a fund are strict: for example, the duty to distribute the fund in accordance with the purposes of the trust. Others are obligations of reasonable care: for example, the duty to exercise reasonable care and skill in the management of the fund. Since these equitable obligations relate to a fund held for trust purposes, the trustee’s liability for a breach of trust will, again putting the matter broadly, depend upon its effect upon the fund: the measure of compensation will generally be based upon the diminution in the value of the fund caused by the trustee’s default.’
and: ‘The result of the appeal was undoubtedly correct. The mortgage advance had been paid out prematurely and to the wrong person, with the consequence that at that point the trustee did not have the charges which he ought to have had. That deficiency was however remedied when the charges were obtained some weeks later. The assets under the control of the trustee were then exactly what they ought to have been. There was nothing missing from the trust fund, and therefore no basis for a claim for restoration. For the same reason, there was no basis for a claim to compensation by the mortgagee.’

Judges:

Lord Neuberger, Lady Hale, Lord Wilson, Lord Reed, Lord Toulson

Citations:

[2014] UKSC 58, [2014] 3 WLR 1367, [2014] WLR(D) 466, UKSC 2013/0052, [2015] AC 1503

Links:

Bailii, WLRD, Bailii Summary, SC, SC Summary

Statutes:

Judicature Act 1873

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

At ChD – AIB Group (UK) Plc v Mark Redler and Co (A Firm) ChD 23-Jan-2012
The claimant bank sought damages from the defendant solicitors, saying that they had paid on mortgage advance moneys but failed to deliver as promised and required, a first mortgage over the property purchased. The solicitors had failed to discharge . .
Cited – Target Holdings Ltd v Redferns (A Firm) and Another HL 21-Jul-1995
The defendant solicitors had acted for a purchaser, Crowngate, which had agreed to buy a property from a company called Mirage for andpound;775,000. Crowngate had arranged however that the property would first be passed through a chain of two . .
At CA – AIB Group (UK) Plc v Mark Redler and Co Solicitors CA 8-Feb-2013
The defendant firm of solicitors had acted for the claimants under instructions to secure a first charge over the secured property. They failed to secure the discharge of the existing first charge, causing losses. AIB asserted breach of trust.
Cited – Caffrey v Darby 1801
A fiduciary has a strict duty to account; equity imposes stringent liability on a fiduciary as a deterrent – pour encourager les autres. Lord Eldon LC said: ‘It would be very dangerous, though no fraud could be imputed to the trustees, and no kind . .
Cited – Nocton v Lord Ashburton HL 19-Jun-1914
The defendant solicitor had persuaded his client to release a charge, thus advancing the solicitor’s own subsequent charge on the same property. The action was started in the Chancery Division of the High Court. The statement of claim alleged fraud . .
Cited – Canson Enterprises Ltd v Boughton and Co 21-Nov-1991
Canlii Supreme Court of Canada – Canada – Damages — Breach of fiduciary duty — Solicitor preparing conveyance not advising purchasers of secret profit made on a flip — On agreed facts, purchasers fully . .
Cited – Libertarian Investments Ltd v Hall 6-Nov-2013
(Hong Kong) A trustee owes a duty to hold trust funds and apply them for the purposes of the trust (a stewardship or custodial duty). He is bound to answer for his stewardship when called on by the beneficiary to do so. If for any reason he . .
Cited – Bartlett v Barclays Bank Trust Co Ltd (Nos 1 and 2) ChD 1980
A claim was made against a trustee for compensation for losses incurred during the administration of the trust.
Held: For a court to order an account by a trustee on the basis of wilful default, and make the defendant liable not only for . .
Cited – Agricultural Land Management Ltd v Jackson (No 2) 2-May-2014
(Supreme Court of Western Australia) Equity – Fiduciary duties – Whether mere existence of conflict is actionable – Whether a breach of conflict rule requires a fiduciary actually to act in a position of conflict and pursue or prefer a personal . .
Cited – Mothew (T/a Stapley and Co) v Bristol and West Building Society CA 24-Jul-1996
The solicitor, acting in a land purchase transaction for his lay client and the plaintiff, had unwittingly misled the claimant by telling the claimant that the purchasers were providing the balance of the purchase price themselves without recourse . .
Cited – Ex parte Adamson; In re Collie CA 1878
The Court of Chancery never entertained a suit for damages occasioned by fraudulent conduct or for breach of trust, and that the suit was always for ‘an equitable debt, or liability in the nature of a debt’. . .
Cited – Livingstone v Rawyards Coal Co HL 13-Feb-1880
Damages or removal of coal under land
User damages were awarded for the unauthorised removal of coal from beneath the appellant’s land, even though the site was too small for the appellant to have mined the coal himself. The appellant was also awarded damages for the damage done to the . .
Cited – Magnus v Queensland National Bank 1888
A custodial bank was liable to restore trust funds merely because it dissipated the trust funds in a manner which was not authorised. Lord Halsbury LC said: ‘we are not at liberty to speculate whether the same result might not have followed whether . .
Cited – 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 . .
Cited – Kelly v Cooper and Cooper Trading As Cooper Associates (A Firm) Co PC 19-Oct-1992
Bermuda – The fiduciary obligations imposed on an agent will depend on the express and implied terms of the contract. Although an agent is, in the absence of contractual provision, in breach of his fiduciary duties if he acts for another who is in . .
Cited – 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 . .
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 – FHR European Ventures Llp and Others v Cedar Capital Partners Llc SC 16-Jul-2014
Approprietary remedy against Fraudulent Agent
The Court was asked whether a bribe or secret commission received by an agent is held by the agent on trust for his principal, or whether the principal merely has a claim for equitable compensation in a sum equal to the value of the bribe or . .
Cited – KM v HM 29-Oct-1992
Supreme Court of Canada – Limitation of actions – Torts – Assault and battery – Incest – Woman bringing action against father for damages for incest – Whether or not action limited by Limitations Act – Application of the reasonable discoverability . .
Cited – Breen v Williams 6-Sep-1996
High Court of Australia – Medicine – Doctor/patient relationship – Medical records – Patient’s right to access – Contractual right – Doctor’s duty to act in patient’s ‘best interests’ with utmost good faith and loyalty – Patient’s proprietary right . .
Cited – Maguire v Makaronis 25-Jun-1997
High Court of Australia – Equity – Fiduciary duties – Solicitor and client relationship – Mortgage by clients in favour of solicitors – Ascertainment of particular fiduciary duties.
Equity – Equitable remedies – Rescission – Relevance of . .
Cited – Youyang Pty Ltd v Minter Ellison Morris Fletcher 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 . .
Cited – 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 . .
Cited – Amaltal Corpn Ltd v Maruha Corpn 20-Feb-2007
Supreme Court of New Zealand – Blanchard J said that even in a commercial relationship, there might be aspects which engaged fiduciary obligations: ‘That is because in the nature of that particular aspect of the relationship one party is entitled to . .
Cited – Premium Real Estate Ltd v Stevens 6-Mar-2009
Supreme Court of New Zealand – The court was asked as to the forfeiture of remuneration by an agent for breach of fiduciary duty.
Held: In relation to remoteness of damage, it was observed that the question of foreseeability in common law . .
Cited – 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 . .

Cited by:

Cited – Purrunsing v A’Court and Co (A Firm) and Another ChD 14-Apr-2016
The claimant had paid money for a property, but the seller was a fraudster and no money or title was recovered. The claimant sued both his conveyancers and the solicitors who had acted for the fraudster, in each case innocently. The defendants each . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Equity, Damages, Legal Professions

Leading Case

Updated: 11 February 2022; Ref: scu.538296

Coflexip Sacoflexip Stena Offshore Limited v Stolt Offshore Limitedstolt Offshore Limited Stolt Offshore A/S: CA 13 Mar 2003

In proceedings already heard the defendant had been found liable for patent infringement, and damages remained to be assessed. They claimed for loss of profits and royalties, and for damages through dilution of the market. The claimants said that to recover damages for price reduction they needed only to prove that the wrongful acts of the defendant caused them to reduce their prices. The defendants contended they must prove that a cause of the price reduction was the use of the infringing process.
Held: The calculation cannot be an exact mathematical one. The requirements for causation and forseeability were satisfied in this case. The defendants appeal was allowed but only to the extent of requiring the claimant to replead its case.

Judges:

Lord Justice Aldous, Lord Justice Jonathan Parker, Lord Justice Kay

Citations:

[2003] EWCA Civ 296, [2004] FSR 34

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – General Tire v Firestone Tyre and Rubber Company Limited HL 1975
The object of damages is to compensate for loss or injury. The general rule for ‘economic’ torts is that the measure is that sum of money which will put the injured party in the same position as he would have been in if he had not sustained the . .
Cited – Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v Puncture Proof Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd 1899
There are two essential principles in valuing a claim for damages: first, that the plaintiffs must prove their loss: second, that the defendants being wrong-doers, damages should be liberally assessed but that the object is to compensate the . .
Cited – Boyd v The Tootal Broadhurst Lee Co 1894
In a claim for damages for infringement of a patent, the plaintiff manufacturers proved that a profit of 7s. per spindle would have been made, and settlements of litigation for lesser rates were discarded. . .
Cited – Kuwait Airways Corporation v Iraqi Airways Company and Others (Nos 4 and 5) HL 16-May-2002
After the invasion of Kuwait, the Iraqi government had dissolved Kuwait airlines, and appropriated several airplanes. Four planes were destroyed by Allied bombing, and 6 more were appropriated again by Iran.
Held: The appeal failed. No claim . .
Cited – Catnic Components Ltd and Another v Hill and Smith Ltd HL 1982
The plaintiffs had been established as market leaders with their patented construction, had ample production capacity and stocks, but had never granted any licence under their patent. The patent was for a novel type of galvanised steel lintel, which . .
Cited – Gerber Garment Technology Inc v Lectra Systems Limited Lectra Systemes SA CA 18-Dec-1996
The plaintiffs claimed damages for patent infringement. Some of the lost profits for which the plaintiff company claimed damages were suffered by subsidiary companies in which it held all the shares.
Held: When a shareholder has a cause of . .
Cited – Gorris v Scott 22-Apr-1874
In the case of a statutory duty, the scope of the duty is answered by deducing the purpose of the duty from the language and context of the statute. . .

Cited by:

Cited – Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd v Zodiac Seats UK Ltd SC 3-Jul-2013
Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd sought to recover damages exceeding 49,000,000 pounds for the infringement of a European Patent which did not exist in the form said to have been infringed. The Technical Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office had . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Intellectual Property, Damages

Updated: 11 February 2022; Ref: scu.179740

Henderson v Merrett Syndicates Ltd: HL 25 Jul 1994

Lloyds Agents Owe Care Duty to Member; no Contract

Managing agents conducted the financial affairs of the Lloyds Names belonging to the syndicates under their charge. It was alleged that they managed these affairs with a lack of due careleading to enormous losses.
Held: The assumption of responsibility principle enunciated in Hedley is not confined to statements but may apply to any assumption of responsibility for the provision of services. This extended Hedley Byrne principle is the rationalisation or technique adopted to provide a remedy for the recovery of damages in respect of economic loss caused by the negligent performance of services. Once a case falls within the extended Hedley Byrne principle, there is no need to embark on any further inquiry whether it is ‘fair, just and reasonable’ to impose liability for economic loss. Further ‘reliance upon [the assumption of responsibility] by the other party will be necessary to establish a cause of action (because otherwise the negligence will have no causative effect).’ The existence of a contractual duty of care between the parties does not preclude the concurrence of a tort duty in the same respect.
Professional advisers may owe to the same client a duty to exercise reasonable care and skill derived from both contract and tort law.
Lord Browne-Wilkinson said: ‘The phrase ‘fiduciary duties’ is a dangerous one, giving rise to a mistaken assumption that all fiduciaries owe the same duties in all circumstances. That is not the case. Although, so far as I am aware, every fiduciary is under a duty not to make a profit from his position (unless such profit is authorised), the fiduciary duties owed, for example, by an express trustee are not the same as those owed by an agent. Moreover, and more relevantly, the extent and nature of the fiduciary duties owed in any particular case fall to be determined by reference to any underlying contractual relationship between the parties. Thus, in the case of an agent employed under a contract, the scope of his fiduciary duties is determined by the terms of the underlying contract. Although an agent is, in the absence of contractual provision, in breach of his fiduciary duties if he acts for another who is in competition with his principal, if the contract under which he is acting authorises him so to do, the normal fiduciary duties are modified accordingly: see Kelly v. Cooper [1993] A.C. 205, and the cases there cited. The existence of a contract does not exclude the co-existence of concurrent fiduciary duties (indeed, the contract may well be their source); but the contract can and does modify the extent and nature of the general duty that would otherwise arise.’

Judges:

Lord Goff of Chieveley, Lord Browne-Wilkinson

Citations:

[1995] 2 AC 145, [1994] 3 All ER 506, Times 26-Jul-1994, [1994] UKHL 5, [1994] 3 WLR 761

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – Hedley Byrne and Co Ltd v Heller and Partners Ltd HL 28-May-1963
Banker’s Liability for Negligent Reference
The appellants were advertising agents. They were liable themselves for advertising space taken for a client, and had sought a financial reference from the defendant bankers to the client. The reference was negligent, but the bankers denied any . .
Appeal from – Arbuthnott v Feltrim; Deeny v Gooda Walker; Henderson v Merrett CA 14-Dec-1993
Underwriters owe a professional duty of care to Lloyds names in underwriting, even though they were acting as agents. . .

Cited by:

Cited – Bellefield Computer Services and others v E Turner and Sons Limited and others CA 18-Dec-2002
The defendants had carried out works of construction on the premises. They subcontracted the design, but not the supervision, of the works to architects. Years later there was a fire, which spread rapidly because of negligence in the design of a . .
Cited – DP Mann and others v Coutts and Co ComC 16-Sep-2003
The claimants were involved in litigation, They took certain steps on the understanding that the respondents had had deposited with them substantial sums in accounts under binding authorities. The bank had written a letter upon which they claim they . .
Cited – Silven Properties Limited, Chart Enterprises Incorporated v Royal Bank of Scotland Plc, Vooght, Harris CA 21-Oct-2003
The claimants sought damages from mortgagees who had sold their charged properties as receivers. They said they had failed to sell at a proper value. They asked whether the express appointment in the mortgage of receivers as agents of the mortgagor . .
Cited – Niru Battery Manufacturing Company, Bank Sepah Iran v Milestone Trading Limited CA 23-Oct-2003
The claimant had contracted to purchase lead from some of the defendants. There were delays in payment but when funds were made available they should have been repaid. An incorrect bill of lading was presented. The bill certified that the goods had . .
Cited – Oldham and others v Georgina Kyrris and Another CA 4-Nov-2003
The claimant sought to bring a claim against the administrators of a partnership alleging a duty of care to creditors.
Held: Such an administrator owed no greater duty to creditors than would a director. That duty was no different whether the . .
Cited – Commissioners of Customs and Excise v Barclays Bank Plc ComC 3-Feb-2004
The claimant had obtained orders against two companies who banked with the respondent. Asset freezing orders were served on the bank, but within a short time the customer used the bank’s Faxpay national service to transfer substantial sums outside . .
Cited – Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis v Lennon CA 20-Feb-2004
The claimant police officer considered being transferred to Northern Ireland. He asked and was incorrectly told that his housing allowance would not be affected by taking time off work.
Held: The break between employments had affected his . .
Cited – McLoughlin v Jones; McLoughlin v Grovers (a Firm) CA 2002
In deciding whether a duty of care is established the court must go to the ‘battery of tests which the House of Lords has taught us to use’, namely: ‘. . the ‘purpose’ test (Banque Bruxelles Lambert SA v Eagle Star Insurance Co Ltd); the ‘assumption . .
Cited – Phelps v Mayor and Burgesses London Borough of Hillingdon CA 4-Nov-1998
The plaintiff claimed damages for the negligent failure of an educational psychologist employed by a local authority to identify that the plaintiff was dyslexic.
Held: An educational psychologist has no duty of care to a child, as opposed to . .
Cited – Jane Marianne Sandhar, John Stuart Murray v Department of Transport, Environment and the Regions CA 5-Nov-2004
The claimant’s husband died when his car skidded on hoar frost. She claimed the respondent was liable under the Act and at common law for failing to keep it safe.
Held: The respondent had not assumed a general responsibility to all road users . .
Cited – Customs and Excise v Barclays Bank Plc CA 22-Nov-2004
The claimant had obtained judgment against customers of the defendant, and then freezing orders for the accounts. The defendants inadvertently or negligently allowed sums to be transferred from the accounts. The claimants sought repayment by the . .
Cited – First National Commercial Bank Plc v Loxleys (a Firm) CA 6-Nov-1996
The plaintiff claimed damages from the seller of land and from their solicitors for misrepresentation in the replies to enquiries before contract. He appealed a striking out of his claim.
Held: A lawyer’s disclaimer placed on his Replies to . .
Cited – Precis (521) Plc v William M Mercer Ltd CA 15-Feb-2005
Purchasers of a company sought to claim in negligence against the respondent actuaries in respect of a valuation of the company’s pension funds.
Held: There was a paucity of authority as to when a duty of care was assumed. The words used and . .
Cited – Regina v Lam and Others (T/a ‘Namesakes of Torbay’) and Borough of Torbay CA 30-Jul-1997
The claimant sought damages after the planning authority allowed the first defendant to conduct a manufacturing business in the course of which spraying activities took place which caused them personal injuries and loss of business.
Held: The . .
Cited – West Bromwich Albion Football Club Ltd v El-Safty QBD 14-Dec-2005
The claimant sought damages from the defendant surgeon alleging negligent care of a footballer. The defendant argued that he had no duty to the club as employer of his patient who was being treated through his BUPA membership. It would have created . .
Cited – HM Customs and Excise v Barclays Bank Plc HL 21-Jun-2006
The claimant had served an asset freezing order on the bank in respect of one of its customers. The bank paid out on a cheque inadvertently as to the order. The Commissioners claimed against the bank in negligence. The bank denied any duty of care. . .
Cited – B and B v A County Council CA 21-Nov-2006
The claimants sought damages from the defendant local authority after their identities had been wrongfully revealed to the natural parents of the adoptees leading to a claimed campaign of harassment. The adopters has specifically requested that . .
Cited – Deutsche Morgan Grenfell Group Plc v Inland Revenue and Another HL 25-Oct-2006
The tax payer had overpaid Advance Corporation Tax under an error of law. It sought repayment. The revenue contended that the claim was time barred.
Held: The claim was in restitution, and the limitation period began to run from the date when . .
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 . .
Cited – White and Another v Jones and Another HL 16-Feb-1995
Will Drafter liable in Negligence to Beneficiary
A solicitor drawing a will may be liable in negligence to a potential beneficiary, having unduly delayed in the drawing of the will. The Hedley Byrne principle was ‘founded upon an assumption of responsibility.’ Obligations may occasionally arise . .
Cited – Grosvenor Casinos Ltd v National Bank of Abu Dhabi ComC 17-Mar-2008
Banker’s reference no guarantee
An Arab businessman lost pounds 18m at the claimant casino, and wrote scrip cheques against his account with the defendant. The claimant obtained judgment, but being unable to enforce that judgment pursued his bank. The club had used a system where . .
Cited – Total Network Sl v Revenue and Customs HL 12-Mar-2008
The House was asked whether an action for unlawful means conspiracy was available against a participant in a missing trader intra-community, or carousel, fraud. The company appealed a finding of liability saying that the VAT Act and Regulations . .
Cited – Welton, Welton v North Cornwall District Council CA 17-Jul-1996
The defendant authority appealed a finding that it was liable in negligence from the conduct of one of its environmental health officers. The plaintiff had set out to refurbish and open a restaurant. He said the officer gave him a list of things he . .
Cited – O’Donnell v Shanahan and Another CA 22-Jul-2009
The claimant appealed against dismissal of her petition for an order for the defendants to purchase her shares at a fair value, saying that they had acted unfairly toward her. Her co-directors had acquired, for another company of which they were . .
Cited – Rossetti Marketing Ltd v Diamond Sofa Company Ltd and Another QBD 3-Oct-2011
The claimants sought compensation under the 1993 Rules. The defendants denied that the claimants were agents within the rules, since they also acted as agents for other furniture makers.
Held: Whether a party is a commercial agent within the . .
Cited – Glaister and Others v Appelby-In-Westmorland Town Council CA 9-Dec-2009
The claimant was injured when at a horse fair. A loose horse kicked him causing injury. They claimed in negligence against the council for licensing the fair without ensuring that public liability insurance. The Council now appealed agaiinst a . .
Cited – Aspect Contracts (Asbetos) Ltd v Higgins Construction Plc SC 17-Jun-2015
Aspect had claimed the return of funds paid by it to the appellant Higgins under an adjudication award in a construction contract disute. The claimant had been asked to prpare asbestos surveys and reports on maisonettes which Higgins was to acquire . .
Cited – Halton International Inc (Holding) and Another v Guernroy Ltd ChD 9-Sep-2005
Parties had entered into a shareholders’ agreement as to voting arrengemets within a company. Thay disputed whether votes had been used in reach of that agreement, particularly as to the issue of new shares and their allotment, but the court now . .
Cited – Steel and Another v NRAM Ltd (Formerly NRAM Plc) SC 28-Feb-2018
The appellant solicitor acted in a land transaction. The land was mortgaged to the respondent bank. She wrote to the bank stating her client’s intention to repay the whole loan. The letter was negligently mistaken and the bankers allowed the . .
Cited – Banca Nazionale Del Lavoro Spa v Playboy Club London Ltd and Others SC 26-Jul-2018
The Playboy casino required a reference for a customer, but asked for this through a third party. The bank was not aware of the agency but gave a good reference for a customer who had never deposited any money with them and nor to whom it had issued . .
Cited – Poole Borough Council v GN and Another SC 6-Jun-2019
This appeal is concerned with the liability of a local authority for what is alleged to have been a negligent failure to exercise its social services functions so as to protect children from harm caused by third parties. The principal question of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Professional Negligence, Damages, Agency

Leading Case

Updated: 11 February 2022; Ref: scu.180462

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. Having settled the claim in part the defendants now claimed contributions from directors of the claimant companies, saying that they themselves contributed to the loss in failing to control their accounts adequately.
Held: The defendant’s request for summary dismissal of the claim succeeded. A claim in knowing receipt is one ‘to recover compensation…in respect of. damage’. The Part 20 claim of City Index satisfed ss.1 and 6 of the 1978 Act because (a) the decision of the Court of Appeal in respect of knowing receipt in Friends Provident Life Office v Hillier, Parker, May and Rowden was not overruled expressly or by implication by the House of Lords in Royal Brompton NHS Trust v Hammond; and (b) a claim for knowing receipt is a claim for compensation for damage sustained in consequence of a breach of trust notwithstanding that it may also be described as restitutionary. The decision of the Court of Appeal in Friends’ Provident that a claim in knowing receipt was one to recover compensation in respect of damage was binding, and the remedy for knowing receipt was compensatory within the provisions of section 6(1) even if it might also be described a restitutionary.

Judges:

Sir Andrew Morritt, Chancellor

Citations:

Times 27-Oct-2006, [2006] EWHC 2508 (Ch), [2007] 1 All ER 1049, [2007] 1 WLR 26

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Cited – El Ajou v Dollar Land Holdings Ltd CA 2-Dec-1993
The court was asked whether, for the purposes of establishing a company’s liability under the knowing receipt head of constructive trust, the knowledge of one of its directors can be treated as having been the knowledge of the company.
Held: . .
Cited – 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 . .
Cited – Bank of Credit and Commerce International (Overseas) Ltd and Another v Akindele CA 22-Jun-2000
The test of whether a person who received funds held them on constructive trust, was not whether he himself was dishonest, but rather whether he had knowledge of circumstances which made it unconscionable to hold on to the money received. In respect . .
Cited – 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 – 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 – Nocton v Lord Ashburton HL 19-Jun-1914
The defendant solicitor had persuaded his client to release a charge, thus advancing the solicitor’s own subsequent charge on the same property. The action was started in the Chancery Division of the High Court. The statement of claim alleged fraud . .
Cited – Target Holdings Ltd v Redferns and Another CA 24-Nov-1993
Solicitors were liable to mortgagees for mortgage monies which had been out by them paid in advance of the completion of the purchase which would allow the mortgagee’s loan to be charged. The basic liability of a trustee in breach of trust was not . .
Cited – Niru Battery Manufacturing Company, Bank Sepah Iran v Milestone Trading Limited CA 28-Apr-2004
Niru contracted to buy lead from Milestone, to be paid for in a letter of credit, against certifying documents produced for the purpose. Mr Mahdavi, the individual behind Milestone, procured CAI to finance the acquisition of warrants to be retained . .
Cited – Royal Brunei Airlines SDN BHD v Tan PC 24-May-1995
(Brunei) The defendants were a one-man company, BLT, and the one man, Mr Tan. A dishonest third party to a breach of trust was liable to make good a resulting loss even though he had received no trust property. The test of knowledge was an objective . .
Cited – Hurstwood Developments Ltd v Motor and General and Andersley and Coinsurance Services Limited and Another CA 21-Nov-2001
. .
Cited – Gruppo Torras v Al Sabah ChD 24-Jun-1999
Liability based on knowing receipt did not ‘depend on the commission of any wrong or give rise to any obligation to make good any loss other than by way of restitution.’ . .
Cited – Twinsectra Ltd v Yardley and Others HL 21-Mar-2002
Solicitors acted in a loan, giving an undertaking as to its application. In breach of that undertaking they released it to the borrower. The appellants appealed a finding of liability as contributors to the breach.
Held: ‘Money in a . .
Cited – 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 – R McDonald v Coys of Kensington Ltd CA 5-Feb-2004
The claimants were car auctioneers. They had been instructed to sell a car, but to withhold the cherished number plate. By mistake it was transferred with the car. Before the plate could be returned, the defendant had transferred it to his partner. . .
Cited – Dubai Aluminium Company Limited v Salaam and Others HL 5-Dec-2002
Partners Liable for Dishonest Act of Solicitor
A solicitor had been alleged to have acted dishonestly, having assisted in a fraudulent breach of trust by drafting certain documents. Contributions to the damages were sought from his partners.
Held: The acts complained of were so close to . .
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’ . .

Cited by:

Appeal from – 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.

Equity, Torts – Other, Damages

Updated: 11 February 2022; Ref: scu.246077

Murphy v Brentwood District Council: HL 26 Jul 1990

Anns v Merton Overruled

The claimant appellant was a house owner. He had bought the house from its builders. Those builders had employed civil engineers to design the foundations. That design was negligent. They had submitted the plans to the defendant Council for approval under the building bye-laws. The Council approved them. The Council was negligent in so doing. The inadequacy of the foundations meant that they did not prevent differential settlement which badly affected the claimant’s house. The cost of repair was 45,000 pounds. He did not repair but instead sold it for 35,000 pounds less than he would have obtained for it had the foundations been designed properly. He sued the Council in respect of this damage.
Held: To hold a local authority, in supervising compliance with the building regulations or bye-laws, to a common law duty of care to avoid putting a purchaser of a house in a position in which he would be obliged to incur such economic loss was an extension of principle that should not, as a matter of policy, be affirmed.
A builder was not liable for purely economic, as opposed to physical, losses of an occupier of a building he constructed.
Lord Oliver said: ‘In his classical exposition in Donoghue v. Stevenson . . Lord Atkin was expressing himself in the context of the infliction of direct physical injury resulting from a carelessly created latent defect in a manufactured product. In his analysis of the duty in those circumstances he clearly equated ‘proximity’ with the reasonable foresight of damage. In the straightforward case of the direct infliction of physical injury by the act of the plaintiff there is, indeed, no need to look beyond the foreseeability by the defendant of the result in order to establish that he is in a ‘proximate’ relationship with the plaintiff . . The infliction of physical injury to the person or property of another universally requires to be justified. The causing of economic loss does not. If it is to be categorised as wrongful it is necessary to find some factor beyond the mere occurrence of the loss and the fact that its occurrence could be foreseen. Thus the categorisation of damage as economic serves at least the useful purpose of indicating that something more is required.’
Lord Keith said that if the plaintiffs had happened to discover the defect before any damage had occurred there would seem to be no good reason for holding that they would not have had a cause of action at that stage, without having to wait until some damage had occurred. They would have suffered economic loss through having a defective chimney upon which they required to expend money for the purpose of removing the defect. It would seem that in a case such as Pirelli, where the tortious liability arose out of a contractual relationship with professional people, the duty extended to take reasonable care not to cause economic loss to the client by the advice given. The plaintiffs built the chimney as they did in reliance on that advice. The case would accordingly fall within the principle of Hedley Byrne.

Judges:

Lord Oliver, Lord Keith of Kinkel

Citations:

[1991] 1 AC 398, Times 27-Jul-1990, [1990] 2 All ER 908, [1991] UKHL 2

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

Overruled – Anns and Others v Merton London Borough Council HL 12-May-1977
The plaintiff bought her apartment, but discovered later that the foundations were defective. The local authority had supervised the compliance with Building Regulations whilst it was being built, but had failed to spot the fault. The authority . .
Cited – Dutton v Bognor Regis Urban District Council CA 1972
The court considered the liability in negligence of a Council whose inspector had approved a building which later proved defective.
Held: The Council had control of the work and with such control came a responsibility to take care in . .
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 – Farr v Butters Brothers and Co 1932
Breaking the chain of causation in a negligence claim. . .

Cited by:

Considered – Stovin v Wise (Norfolk City Council, 3rd party) CA 16-Feb-1994
A road user was injured on a corner which was known to the highway authority to be dangerous. The authority had sought to make arrangements with the owner of land adjoining the highway to remove a bank which obstructed the view.
Held: The . .
Cited – Bellefield Computer Services and others v E Turner and Sons Limited and others CA 18-Dec-2002
The defendants had carried out works of construction on the premises. They subcontracted the design, but not the supervision, of the works to architects. Years later there was a fire, which spread rapidly because of negligence in the design of a . .
Cited – Bellefield Computer Services Limited, Unigate Properties Limited; Unigate Dairies Limited; Unigate (Uk) Limited; Unigate Dairies (Western) Limited v E Turner and Sons Limited Admn 28-Jan-2000
The Defendant builders constructed a steel building to be used as, inter alia. a dairy. The original owners sold it to the appellants. A fire spread from the storage area to the rest of the dairy and caused much damage. The Builders, had they . .
Cited – Binod Sutradhar v Natural Environment Research Council CA 20-Feb-2004
The defendant council had carried out research into a water supply in India in the 1980s. The claimant drank the water, and claimed damages for having consumed arsenic in it.
Held: There is a close link between the tests in law for proximity . .
Cited – Alfred Mcalpine Construction Limited v Panatown Limited HL 17-Feb-2000
A main contractor who was building not on his own land, would only be free to claim damages from a sub-contractor for defects in the building where the actual owner of the land would not also have had a remedy. Here, the land owner was able to sue . .
Cited – Abbott and Another v Will Gannon and Smith Ltd CA 2-Mar-2005
The claimant had employed the defendants to design refurbishment works for their hotel. The work was said to be negligent, and the claimant sought damages. The defendant argued as a preliminary point that the claim was time barred. The question was . .
Cited – Invercargill City Council v Hamlin PC 12-Feb-1996
(New Zealand) Seventeen years earlier the plaintiff had asked a builder to construct a house for him, but it now appeared that the foundations had been inadequate. The building company no longer being in existence, he sought damages from the local . .
Cited – McTear v Imperial Tobacco Ltd OHCS 31-May-2005
The pursuer sought damages after her husband’s death from lung cancer. She said that the defenders were negligent in having continued to sell him cigarettes knowing that they would cause this.
Held: The action failed. The plaintiff had not . .
Cited – HM Customs and Excise v Barclays Bank Plc HL 21-Jun-2006
The claimant had served an asset freezing order on the bank in respect of one of its customers. The bank paid out on a cheque inadvertently as to the order. The Commissioners claimed against the bank in negligence. The bank denied any duty of care. . .
Cited – D Pride and Partners (A Firm) and Others v Institute for Animal Health and Others QBD 31-Mar-2009
The claimants sought damages after the loss of business when the defendants’ premises were the source of an outbreak of foot and mouth disease. The organism had escaped from their premises via a broken drain.
Held: Much of the damage claimed . .
Cited – Michael and Others v The Chief Constable of South Wales Police and Another SC 28-Jan-2015
The claimants asserted negligence in the defendant in failing to provide an adequate response to an emergency call, leading, they said to the death of their daughter at the hands of her violent partner. They claimed also under the 1998 Act. The . .
Cited – Robinson v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police SC 8-Feb-2018
Limits to Police Exemption from Liability
The claimant, an elderly lady was bowled over and injured when police were chasing a suspect through the streets. As they arrested him they fell over on top of her. She appealed against refusal of her claim in negligence.
Held: Her appeal . .
Cited – Poole Borough Council v GN and Another SC 6-Jun-2019
This appeal is concerned with the liability of a local authority for what is alleged to have been a negligent failure to exercise its social services functions so as to protect children from harm caused by third parties. The principal question of . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Negligence

Leading Case

Updated: 11 February 2022; Ref: scu.180994

Sycamore Bidco Ltd v Breslin and Another: ChD 17 Jan 2013

Judges:

Mann J

Citations:

[2013] EWHC 38 (Ch)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Citing:

See Also – Sycamore Bidco Ltd v Breslin and Another ChD 30-Nov-2012
The court considered a claim in breach of warranty and misrepresentation in a share purchase transaction.
Held: There had been no representation as suggested, and therefore no misrepresentation. There had however been a breach of warranty. . .

Cited by:

See Also – Sycamore Bidco Ltd v Breslin and Another ChD 14-Feb-2013
The court considered whether it was correct to award interest on the sum of damages for the period before as well as after judgment, and if so, from what date and at what rate of interest.. . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 09 February 2022; Ref: scu.470133

Drake and another v Foster Wheeler Ltd: QBD 5 Aug 2010

The claimant sought damages for asbestosis. He had been given Hospice care in the period up to his death. A claim was made for the costs of such voluntary care, suggesting a parallel with a claim which might be made by a relative providing voluntary care.
Held: The claim succeeded. The claim was novel, arguing that the defendant should not be able to deduct from damages payable savings made when a third party offered gratuitous charitable care. The claim was in line with established principles and it was unlikely to lead to substantial numbers of claims.

Judges:

Thornton QC J

Citations:

[2010] EWHC 2004 (QB), [2010] WLR (D) 232

Links:

WLRD

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Personal Injury, Damages

Updated: 06 February 2022; Ref: scu.421531

Wilson v William Baird and Co, Ltd: SCS 6 Dec 1922

Citations:

[1922] SLR 141

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

Scotland

Damages

Updated: 04 February 2022; Ref: scu.578043

Personal Management Solutions Ltd and Another v Brakes Bros Ltd and Others: QBD 1 Mar 2017

Appeal against an order restricting the essessment of damagess to a certain scope,

Judges:

Whipple DBE J

Citations:

[2017] EWHC 383 (QB)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Damages

Updated: 04 February 2022; Ref: scu.578048

Phelps v Button: ChD 11 Oct 2016

Judges:

Matthews M

Citations:

[2016] EWHC 3185 (Ch)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Damages, Litigation Practice

Updated: 04 February 2022; Ref: scu.577832

C F and M G Roberts v South Gloucestershire District Council: LT 31 Dec 1994

LT COMPENSATION – Compulsory purchase of land for the construction of a road – value – assumed planning permission – value of minerals – planning permission for a commercial minerals operation not granted or to be assumed – compensation assessed on basis of agricultural value at andpound;17,000 – Alternative valuation (Rule 50(4) Lands Tribunal Rules 1996) andpound;86,000 – Land Compensation Act 1961 s.5 rules (2), (3) and (4), ss.6 and 14 -18.

Judges:

P R Francis

Citations:

ACQ/90/93, [2001] EWLands ACQ – 90 – 1993

Links:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Golden Strait Corporation v Nippon Yusen Kubishka Kaisha (‘The Golden Victory’) HL 28-Mar-2007
The claimant sought damages for repudiation of a charterparty. The charterpary had been intended to continue until 2005. The charterer repudiated the contract and that repudiation was accepted, but before the arbitrator could set his award, the Iraq . .
Cited – Re L and B (Children) SC 20-Feb-2013
The court was asked as to the extent to which a court, having once declared its decision, could later change its mind. Though this case arose with in care proceedings, the court asked it as a general question. The judge in a fact finding hearing in . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Personal Injury

Updated: 01 February 2022; Ref: scu.252489

Kitchen v Royal Air Force Association: CA 1958

Statutes:

Financial Services Act 1986 62

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Primavera v Allied Dunbar Assurance Plc CA 4-Oct-2002
The claimant purchased a pension plan relying upon advice from the defendant. Since discovering the error, the plan had in fact prospered. The respondent appealed the judges failure to allow fully for the improvement when assessing damages.
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Financial Services, Damages, Professional Negligence

Updated: 01 February 2022; Ref: scu.136177

[2017] EWHC 289 (Ch)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Intellectual Property, Damages

Updated: 31 January 2022; Ref: scu.575346

Aviva Insurance Ltd and Another v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions: CA 14 Jan 2022

Judges:

Sir Julian Flaux, Chancellor of the High Court
Lord Justice Dingemans
And
Lady Justice Carr

Citations:

[2022] EWCA Civ 15

Links:

Bailii

Statutes:

Social Security (Recovery of Benefits) Act 1997

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Benefits, Damages

Updated: 31 January 2022; Ref: scu.671222

England and Wales

Cited by:

Cited – Turley v Unite The Union and Another QBD 19-Dec-2019
Defamation of Labour MP by Unite and Blogger
The claimant now a former MP had alleged that a posting on a website supported by the first defendant was false and defamatory. The posting suggested that the claimant had acted dishonestly in applying online for a category of membership of the . .
Cited – Hijazi v Yaxley-Lennon (Orse Tommy Robinson) QBD 22-Jul-2021
No Valid Evidence to Support Serious Accusations
The claimant was filmed being assaulted in the school playground. The film was published on the internet, and the defendant right wing politician re-published it, but falsely said that the claimant had himself been violent.
Held: The . .
Cited – Stocker v Stocker SC 3-Apr-2019
The parties had been married and divorced. Mrs S told M S’s new partner on Facebook that he had tried to strangle her and made other allegations. Mrs S now appealed from a finding that she had defamed him. Lord Kerr restated the approach to meaning . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Defamation, Damages

Updated: 29 January 2022; Ref: scu.632218

Mehmetemin v Farrell: QBD 27 Jan 2017

Judges:

Sir Robert Nelson

Citations:

[2017] EWHC 103 (QB)

Links:

Bailii

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Damages, Personal Injury

Updated: 29 January 2022; Ref: scu.573624

Caballero v United Kingdom: ECHR 29 Feb 2000

Provisions were in place which said that a person charged with a very serious crime of violence having once been convicted previously of rape or murder he was to be refused bail automatically. Although the provision had later been altered, the provision did infringe his human rights, and the system also denied to him an opportunity to claim any compensation.
The period spent on remand had been deducted from the sentence, so that ordinarily no award would have been made. The court however noted that the applicant’s state of health was such that any release on bail prior to his trial could have been his last days of liberty. There was also undisputed evidence that the applicant would have had a good chance of being released on bail but for the breach of article 5(3). In these exceptional circumstances, an award of pounds 1000 was made ‘on an equitable basis’.
Judgment (Merits and just satisfaction) Violation of Art. 5-3; Violation of Art. 5-5; Not necessary to examine Art. 13; Not necessary to examine Art. 14+5-3; Non-pecuniary damage – financial award; Costs and expenses partial award – Convention procedure

Citations:

Times 29-Feb-2000, (2000) 30 EHRR 643, 32819/96, [2000] ECHR 52, [2000] ECHR 53

Links:

Worldlii, Bailii

Statutes:

European Convention on Human Rights Art 5.1

Jurisdiction:

Human Rights

Cited by:

Cited – O v Crown Court at Harrow HL 26-Jul-2006
The claimant said that his continued detention after the custody time limits had expired was an infringement of his human rights. He faced continued detention having been refused bail because of his arrest on a grave charge, having a previous . .
Cited – Faulkner, Regina (on The Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice and Another SC 1-May-2013
The applicants had each been given a life sentence, but having served the minimum term had been due to have the continued detention reviewed to establish whether or not continued detention was necessary for the protection of the pblic. It had not . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Human Rights, Criminal Practice, Damages

Updated: 29 January 2022; Ref: scu.78813

Updated: 27 January 2022; Ref: scu.261756

Unilin Beheer Bv v Berry Floor Nv and others: CA 25 Apr 2007

The patent at issue was retrospectively amended by the EPO to limit its scope to valid claims, after the English court had given judgment in favour of the patentee. The ‘vexation’ associated with the pursuit of two proceedings challenging the validity of the patent was an inescapable feature of the statutory scheme which conferred concurrent jurisdiction on questions of validity on both the English court and the EPO.
Jacob LJ said: ‘Of course in principle the preferred option is to stay UK proceedings if there are corresponding EPO proceedings. And it may in some circumstances be the case that an interim injunction could serve to hold the fort whilst these proceed. But all must depend on the circumstances and particularly the timing. Normally, although a stay is in principle the preferred course, it would be wrong to prevent the patentee from enforcing his patent here if the EPO opposition will not be concluded reasonably soon – as all too often it sadly is not. Take this case: the action started here in May 2002 and was finally over by November 2005. The EPO proceedings are still running and could be still doing so at the end of next year. Business needs to know where it stands – and a patentee is entitled to enforce his patent without undergoing the risks inherent on the cross-undertaking in damages – especially if the period involved could involve years.’

Mummery, Arden, Jacob LJJ
[2007] EWCA Civ 364, [2007] FSR 25, [2008] 1 All ER 156, [2007] Bus LR 1140, [2007] 2 All ER (Comm) 599
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
See Also – Unilin Beheer Bv v Berry Floor Nv, Information Management Consultancy Design Limited (T/A Responsive Designs), B and Q Plc CA 30-Jul-2004
Patents – infringement – validity . .
See Also – Unilin Beheer Bv v Berry Floor Nv and others (No. 2) CA 3-Nov-2005
. .

Cited by:
Cited – Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd v Zodiac Seats UK Ltd SC 3-Jul-2013
Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd sought to recover damages exceeding 49,000,000 pounds for the infringement of a European Patent which did not exist in the form said to have been infringed. The Technical Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office had . .
Cited – Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd v Zodiac Seats UK Ltd SC 3-Jul-2013
Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd sought to recover damages exceeding 49,000,000 pounds for the infringement of a European Patent which did not exist in the form said to have been infringed. The Technical Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office had . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Intellectual Property, Damages

Updated: 27 January 2022; Ref: scu.251455

Simpson v Simpson: CA 20 Dec 2016

Appeal against award of only nominal damages afer finding of conversion.

[2016] EWCA Civ 1306
Bailii
England and Wales

Torts – Other, Damages

Updated: 27 January 2022; Ref: scu.572742

Harlequin Property (SVG) Ltd and Another v Wilkins Kennedy (A Firm): TCC 21 Dec 2016

Coulson J
[2016] EWHC 3233 (TCC)
Bailii
England and Wales

Damages

Updated: 27 January 2022; Ref: scu.572703

Lennon-Knight v Yakira Group Ltd: EAT 16 Nov 2016

EAT Unfair Dismissal: Automatically Unfair Reasons – UNFAIR DISMISSAL – Compensation
In assessing future loss of earnings the Employment Tribunal applied a two year cut-off in a case where it was common ground, based on agreed medical evidence, that the Claimant would never regain her previous career position of Finance Director on equivalent terms. Wardle [2011] ICR 1290, paragraphs 47 to 54, and Chagger [2010] ICR 397, paragraph 74, (both Court of Appeal) considered. Appeal allowed and future loss issue remitted to the same Employment Tribunal for reconsideration.

Peter Clark HHJ
[2016] UKEAT 0186 – 16 – 1611
Bailii
England and Wales

Employment, Damages

Updated: 27 January 2022; Ref: scu.572670

OH v Craven: QBD 7 Dec 2016

Application of payment out of damages in court to personal injury trusts

Norris J
[2016] EWHC 3146 (QB)
Bailii
England and Wales

Personal Injury, Damages

Updated: 27 January 2022; Ref: scu.572348

Kennedy v London Ambulance Service NHS Trust: QBD 8 Dec 2016

Peter Hughes QC HHJ
[2016] EWHC 3145 (QB)
Bailii
England and Wales

Personal Injury, Damages

Updated: 27 January 2022; Ref: scu.572346

Parry v Edwards Geldard (A Firm): ChD 1 May 2001

The court had to decide the measure of damages. The claimant had lost the opportunity to acquire without charge a milk quota. The claimant asserted an estoppel by convention. This failed. Also the judge had not properly allowed for the marriage value of changes in the value of a second plot becoming used in conjunction with nearby land.

[2001] EWHC Ch 427
Bailii
Dairy Produce Quotas Regulations 1994
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Amalgamated Investment and Property Co Ltd (in Liq) v Texas Commerce International Bank Ltd CA 1982
The court explained the nature of an estoppel by convention.
Lord Denning MR said: ‘The doctrine of estoppel is one of the most flexible and useful in the armoury of the law. But it has become overloaded with cases. That is why I have not gone . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Agriculture, Damages, Estoppel

Updated: 27 January 2022; Ref: scu.135476

Sahin v Havard and Another: CA 30 Nov 2016

The court was asked whether a particular insurance policy covered the costs of providing a substitute vehicle for the claimant driver.

Longmore, Kitchin, Floyd LJJ
[2016] EWCA Civ 1202, [2016] WLR(D) 637
Bailii, WLRD
England and Wales

Road Traffic, Damages, Insurance

Updated: 26 January 2022; Ref: scu.571940

Richards and Another v I P Solutions Group Ltd: QBD 30 Nov 2016

Supplemental judgment

May DBE J
[2016] EWHC 2599 (QB)
Bailii
England and Wales

Damages, Costs

Updated: 26 January 2022; Ref: scu.571917

Wardle v Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank: CA 1 Jul 2011

Elias LJ
[2011] EWCA Civ 770
Bailii
Employment Act 2002
England and Wales

Employment, Damages

Updated: 26 January 2022; Ref: scu.441441

Mohammed and Others v Newcastle City Council: UTLC 31 Oct 2016

UTLC COMPENSATION – compulsory purchase – fish and chip shop – expert evidence following interim decision on facts – grossly exaggerated claim – substantial concessions in claimants’ closing submissions – open market value of freehold interest – no compensation for loss of profits in absence of reliable evidence – disturbance and other rule (6) losses – compensation determined at andpound;238,865

[2016] UKUT 415 (LC)
Bailii
England and Wales

Land, Damages

Updated: 26 January 2022; Ref: scu.571434

McGill v The Sports and Entertainment Media Group and Others: CA 4 Nov 2016

The claimant football agent had claimed against a footballer client for breach of contract and against the client’s new agent for inducing a breach of contract.

Lloyd Jones LJ, Henderson J
[2016] EWCA Civ 1063, [2016] WLR(D) 571
Bailii, WLRD
England and Wales

Contract, Torts – Other, Damages

Updated: 25 January 2022; Ref: scu.571228

Rupasinghe v West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust: QBD 9 Nov 2016

The claimant sought damages after the death of her husband at the admitted negligence of the defendant hospital.

Jay J
[2016] EWHC 2848 (QB)
Bailii
Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1934, Fatal Accidents Act 1976
England and Wales

Personal Injury, Damages

Updated: 25 January 2022; Ref: scu.571116

Watt v ABC: CoP 2 Nov 2016

The had been a very large award of damages for disabling personal injury. The court now considered whether the sum should be held in trust or administered by ABC’s property and affairs deputy.

Charles J
[2016] EWCOP 2532
Bailii
England and Wales

Damages, Personal Injury

Updated: 24 January 2022; Ref: scu.570863

Scottish Power UK Plc v BP Exploration Operating Company Ltd and Others: CA 1 Nov 2016

Compensation calculated to be due after cancellation of long term gas supply contracts

Moore-Bick VP CA, Christopher Clarke, King LJJ
[2016] EWCA Civ 1043
Bailii
England and Wales

Utilities, Contract, Damages

Updated: 24 January 2022; Ref: scu.570649

Fiona Trust and Holding Corporation v Privalov: ComC 7 Oct 2016

Calculation of the damages payable to the defendants which the parties have been unable to agree following delivery of judgment.

Smales J
[2016] EWHC 2451 (Comm)
Bailii
England and Wales

Damages

Updated: 24 January 2022; Ref: scu.570153

Tapp v Mccoll: SCS 13 Sep 2016

The pursuer sues the defender in reparation for injuries sustained when the car in which she was a passenger was involved in a minor road accident. Liability was admitted and the parties now disputed damages.

Lord McEwan
[2016] ScotCS CSOH – 129
Bailii
Scotland

Damages

Updated: 23 January 2022; Ref: scu.569573

Datec Electronics Holdings Ltd and others v United Parcels Services Ltd: HL 16 May 2007

The defendants had taken on the delivery of a quantity of the claimant’s computers. The equipment reached one depot, but then was lost or stolen. The parties disputed whether the Convention rules applied. UPS said that the claimant had agreed that the value of any one item did not exceed the stated limit. The claimants said that the alleged misconduct of the defendant’s staff meant that UPS could not rely on the limitation of liability provided by the Convention, and that with both restrictions not applying, UPS’s liability was unlimited.
Held: The contract should be read to reflect the commercial reality under which there remained an effective contract despite the excess value. Had the misconduct been proved? The judge had not reflected the proper effect of the expert evidence, and ‘theft involving a UPS employee was shown on a strong balance of probability to have been the cause of this loss. ‘ UPS’ appeal was therefore dismissed.

Lord Hoffmann, Lord Hope of Craighead, Lord Walker of Gestingthorpe, Lord Mance, Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury
Times 18-May-2007, [2007] UKHL 23, [2007] 1 WLR 1325, [2007] 2 Lloyd’s Rep 114, [2007] Bus LR 1291
Bailii
Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road 81, Carriage of Goods by Road Act 1965
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Manning v Stylianou CA 26-Oct-2006
Where an appeal is against a judge’s evaluation of the facts, the Court of Appeal should consider the evaluation in the same way it would approach an appeal against the exercise of discretion. . .
Cited – Quantum Corporation Inc and Others v Plane Trucking Ltd and Another CA 27-Mar-2002
A valuable cargo was stolen whilst being transported. Part of the journey was by road, and part by air. The carriers sought to limit their liability, because of the provisions of the Act and Convention. It was argued that that did not apply, because . .
Approved – Assicurazioni Generali Spa v Arab Insurance Group (BSC) CA 13-Nov-2002
Rehearing/Review – Little Difference on Appeal
The appellant asked the Court to reverse a decision on the facts reached in the lower court.
Held: The appeal failed (Majority decision). The court’s approach should be the same whether the case was dealt with as a rehearing or as a review. . .
At First Instance – Datec Electronic Holdings Ltd and Another v United Parcels Service Ltd and Another ComC 22-Feb-2005
The claimant sought damages for the loss of goods in transit under the care of the defendant. Andrew Smith J held as regards the burden of proof in an allegation of wilful misconduct: ‘I should add that I was properly reminded by counsel that the . .
Appeal from – Datec Electronic Holdings Ltd and Another v United Parcels Service Ltd CA 29-Nov-2005
The parties put forward alternative explanations for the loss of a mail packet. Richards LJ said: ‘Nor do I see any inconsistency between my approach and the observations of Lord Brandon in The Popi M. The conclusion that employee theft was the . .

Cited by:
Cited – London Borough of Lewisham v Malcolm and Disability Rights Commission CA 25-Jul-2007
The court was asked, whether asked to grant possession against a disabled tenant where the grounds for possession were mandatory. The defendant was a secure tenant with a history of psychiatric disability. He had set out to buy his flat, but the . .
Cited – Ide v ATB Sales Ltd and Another CA 28-Apr-2008
Each appellant challenged how the judge had decided between alternative proofs of causation of the respective loss. In Ide, the claimant asserted a fault in a cycle handlebar, and in Lexus, the claimant asserted that it caught fire whilst . .
Cited – Barlow Clowes International Ltd and Others v Henwood CA 23-May-2008
The receiver appealed against an order finding that the debtor petitioner was not domiciled here when the order was made. The debtor had a domicile of origin in England, but later acquired on in the Isle of Man. He then acquired a home in Mauritius . .
Cited – Fosse Motor Engineers Ltd and others v Conde Nast and National Magazine Distributors Ltd and Another TCC 20-Aug-2008
The claimant said that the defendant’s employees had negligently started a fire which burned down the claimant’s warehouse. There was limited evidence to establish the cause.
Held: The claim failed. The scientific evidence did not point to any . .
Cited – Sony Computer Entertainment UK Ltd v Cinram Logistics UK Ltd CA 8-Aug-2008
Various items were deemed to have been lost whilst being transported by the defendants. The claimants sought damages based on the price for which they would have been sold. The defendants appealed a judgment on that basis.
Held: The carrier’s . .
Cited – Alford v Cambridgeshire Police CA 24-Feb-2009
The claimant police officer had been held after an accident when he was in a high speed pursuit of a vehicle into the neighbouring respondent’s area. The prosecution had been discontinued, and he now appealed against rejection of his claims for . .
Cited – Whitehouse v Lee CA 14-May-2009
The tenant appealed against an order requiring her to give up possession of her flat, held under the 1977 Act, saying that the court should not have found it reasonable to make an order after finding alternative accommodation suitable.
Held: . .
Cited – Cooper and Others v Fanmailuk.Com Ltd and Another CA 17-Dec-2009
F claimed to be the beneficial owner of shares registered in the names of the claimants. The appellants challenged a finding that the shares were held on trust for F, and the implication that the first appellant had presented a dishonest claim.
Cited – Nulty and Others v Milton Keynes Borough Council CA 24-Jan-2013
There had been two fires at a depot owned by the claimants. The fires were found to have been likely to have been caused by the deceased employee. His insurers had repudiated liability saying that the had not been notified oin a timely fashion.
Cited – Fortune and Others v Wiltshire Council and Another CA 20-Mar-2012
The court considered the contnuation of public rights of way against the new system of the ending of certain unrecorded rights.
Held: he appeal failed. ‘As a matter of plain language, section 67(2)(b) does not, in our judgment, require the . .
Cited – Fortune and Others v Wiltshire Council and Another CA 20-Mar-2012
The court considered the contnuation of public rights of way against the new system of the ending of certain unrecorded rights.
Held: he appeal failed. ‘As a matter of plain language, section 67(2)(b) does not, in our judgment, require the . .
Cited – Michalak v General Medical Council and Others SC 1-Nov-2017
Dr M had successfully challenged her dismissal and recovered damages for unfair dismissal and race discrimination. In the interim, Her employer HA had reported the dismissal to the respondent who continued their proceedings despite the decision in . .
Mentioned – Shagang Shipping Company Ltd v HNA Group Company Ltd SC 5-Aug-2020
Allegations had been made that a contract had been procured by bribery. The other party said that the admissions of bribery had been extracted by torture and were inadmissible. The CA had decided that the unproven possibility that it was obtained by . .
Cited – Actavis Group Ptc EHF and Others v Icos Corporation and Another SC 27-Mar-2019
The court considered: ‘the application of the test of obviousness under section 3 of the Patents Act 1977 to a dosage patent. In summary, a patent, whose validity is not challenged, identified a compound as an efficacious treatment but did not . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Transport, Contract, Damages

Leading Case

Updated: 23 January 2022; Ref: scu.252416

Smith v Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and Another: QBD 8 Sep 2016

The claimant had cohabited with the deceased: ‘The claimant seeks a declaration in one of two alternative forms:
i) Pursuant to s.3 of the Human Rights Act 1998 . . that s.1A(2)(a) of the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 . . is to be read as including cohabitees who were living with the deceased in the same household immediately before the date of the death, where they had been living with the deceased in the same household for at least two years before that date, and where they were living during the whole of that period as the husband or wife or civil partner of the deceased; or
ii) Pursuant to s.4 of the HRA that s.1A(2)(a) of the FAA is incompatible with her rights under the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms either under Article 8 or under Articles 8 and 14 taken together.
Held: The claim failed. The sections at issue were not incompatible with eth eclaimant’s human rights.

Edis J
[2016] EWHC 2208 (QB)
Bailii
Fatal Accidents Act 1976 1A(2)(a), Human Rights Act 1998 3, European Conventon of Human Rights
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Ghaidan v Godin-Mendoza HL 21-Jun-2004
Same Sex Partner Entitled to tenancy Succession
The protected tenant had died. His same-sex partner sought a statutory inheritance of the tenancy.
Held: His appeal succeeded. The Fitzpatrick case referred to the position before the 1998 Act: ‘Discriminatory law undermines the rule of law . .
Cited – Wilson v Secretary of State for Trade and Industry; Wilson v First County Trust Ltd (No 2) HL 10-Jul-2003
The respondent appealed against a finding that the provision which made a loan agreement completely invalid for lack of compliance with the 1974 Act was itself invalid under the Human Rights Act since it deprived the respondent of its property . .
Cited – Office of Government Commerce v Information Commissioner Admn 11-Apr-2008
Statutory appeal by the Office of Government Commerce (the OGC) against two decisions of the Information Tribunal relating to gateway reviews carried out by the OGC of the Government’s identity card programme. . .
Cited – 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 – 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 – Wilkinson v Kitzinger and others FD 31-Jul-2006
The parties had gone through a ceremony of marriage in Columbia, being both women. After the relationship failed, the claimant sought a declaration that the witholding of the recognition of same-sex marriages recoginised in a foreign jurisdiction . .
Cited – Office of Government Commerce v Information Commissioner and Another Admn 11-Apr-2008
The Office appealed against decisions ordering it to release information about the gateway reviews for the proposed identity card system, claiming a qualified exemption from disclosure under the 2000 Act.
Held: The decision was set aside for . .
Cited – Swift v Secretary of State for Justice CA 18-Mar-2013
The claimant appealed against refusal of a declaration that the 1976 Act infringed her human rights. She had been cohabiting for six months, when her partner was killed in an accident at work for which a third party was liable. Because she had not . .
Cited – Swift v Secretary of State for Justice QBD 18-Jul-2012
The Court considered a dependency claim by a person who had cohabited with the deceased for 6 months prior to death. The claim was for a declaration of incompatibility in relation to the 2 year + cohabitee provision in s.1 of the FAA which, the . .
Cited – Bank Mellat v Her Majesty’s Treasury (No 2) SC 19-Jun-2013
The bank challenged measures taken by HM Treasury to restrict access to the United Kingdom’s financial markets by a major Iranian commercial bank, Bank Mellat, on the account of its alleged connection with Iran’s nuclear weapons and ballistic . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Human Rights, Damages

Updated: 22 January 2022; Ref: scu.569085

Fiona Trust and Holding Corporation v Privalov and Others: ComC 26 Aug 2016

The court considered the award of damages after a world wide asset freezing order was said to have been obtained improperly.

Males J
[2016] EWHC 2163 (Comm)
Bailii
England and Wales

Litigation Practice, Damages

Updated: 22 January 2022; Ref: scu.568892

Fearns (T/A Autopaint International) v Anglo-Dutch Paint and Chemical Company Ltd and Others: ChD 9 Jul 2010

After judgment finding trade mark infringement, the court now considered the damages to be awarded: ‘The central issue in the enquiry is whether the Defendants’ unlawful acts as found in the Liability Judgment not only deprived Mr Fearns of profits but also caused the collapse of his business.’

Leggatt QC HHJ
[2010] EWHC 1708 (Ch)
Bailii
England and Wales

Intellectual Property, Damages

Updated: 22 January 2022; Ref: scu.568561

Reynolds v Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis: CA 18 May 1982

The plaintiff had been awarded andpound;12,000 damages for false imprisonment by the Commissiner’s officers. Officers had suspected the existence of a repeat arsonist operating an insurance fraud. The plaintiff’s husband owned one of the properties. That was the sole ground for her arrest. The judge had found no ground for reasonable suspicion of her.
Held: The grounds were not capable of amounting to a proper suspicion. The damages award was higher than might be awarded by others but was within the proper range.

Waller, O’Connor LJJ, Sir George Baker
[1982] EWCA Civ 7, [1982] Crim LR 600
Bailii
England and Wales
Cited by:
See Also – Reynolds v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis 1985
A search warrant had been obtained under the 1913 Act. The court considered the existence of a tort of obtaining a search warrant maliciously.
Waller LJ discussed the problem facing police officers when a large volume of material were to be . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Police, Torts – Other, Damages

Updated: 22 January 2022; Ref: scu.262676

Hayden v Hayden: CA 24 Mar 1992

Appeal by the defendant driver against the level of an award of damages to a minor suing by her next friend The plaintiff cross-appeals to argue that it was not large enough. The action resulted from a motor accident on 30th August 1983. The defendant was driving a motor car towing a caravan. His wife was a passenger in the car when the car and caravan overturned and his wife was killed. Liability was not disputed.

Parker, McCowan LJJ, Sir David Croom-Johnson
[1992] EWCA Civ 13, [1992] 1 WLR 986
Bailii
England and Wales

Damages, Personal Injury

Updated: 22 January 2022; Ref: scu.262621

Bradburn v Great Western Rail Co: CEC 1874

The plaintiff had received a sum of money from a private insurer to compensate him for lost income as a result of an accident caused by the negligence of the defendant.
Held: He was entitled to full damages as well as the payment from the insurer.
Baron Piggott said: ‘I think that there would be no justice or principle in setting off an amount which the plaintiff has entitled himself to under a contract of insurance, such as any prudent man would make on the principle of, as the expression is, ‘laying by for a rainy day’. He pays the premiums upon a contract which, if he meets with an accident, entitles him to receive a sum of money . . ; and I think that it ought not, upon any principle of justice, to be deducted from the amount of the damages proved to have been sustained by him through the negligence of the defendants.’
Bramwell B said: ‘Clearly there must be no rule. The jury have found that the plaintiff has sustained damages through the defendants’ negligence to the amount of 217l., but it is said that because the plaintiff has received 31l. from the office in which he insured himself against accidents, therefore the damages do not amount to 217l. One is dismayed at this proposition. In Dalby v. India and London Life Assurance Company (4 Bing N.C. 272) it was decided that one who pays premiums for the purpose of insuring himself, pays on the footing that his right to be compensated when the event insured against happens is an equivalent for the premiums be has paid; it is a quid pro quo, larger if he gets it, on the chance that he will never get it at all. That decision is an authority bearing on the present case, for the principle laid down in it applies, and shews that the plaintiff is entitled to retain the benefit which he has paid for in addition to the damages which he recovers on account of the defendants’ negligence.’

Pigott B, Bramwell B
[1874] LR 10 Ex 1, [1874-80] All ER Rep 195, [1874] 44 LJ Ex 9, [1874] 31 LT 464
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Dalby v The India and London Life Assurance Company HL 9-May-1851
An insurance company (Anchor) had taken out insurance with the defendant on the life of the Duke of Cambridge in the sum of pounds 1000 for which it paid a yearly premium during the life of the Duke. Anchor had itself granted policies of insurance . .

Cited by:
Cited – Pirelli General Plc and others v Gaca CA 26-Mar-2004
The claimant was awarded damages from his employers, who claimed that the benefits received by the claimant from an insurance policy to which the defendants had contributed should be set off against the claim.
Held: McCamley was no longer good . .
Applied – 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 . .
Cited – Longden v British Coal Corporation HL 13-Mar-1997
The plaintiff was injured whilst at work in one of the defendant’s collieries. The House considered the deductibility from damages awarded for personal injury of a collateral benefit.
Held: The issue of deductibility where the claim is for . .
Cited – Parry v Cleaver CA 9-May-1967
The plaintiff policeman was hit by a car whilst he was on traffic duty. When he claimed damages in negligence the defendant sought to have deducted from his award an amount received by way of additional pension payments received which had been . .
Approved – Parry v Cleaver HL 5-Feb-1969
PI Damages not Reduced for Own Pension
The plaintiff policeman was disabled by the negligence of the defendant and received a disablement pension. Part had been contributed by himself and part by his employer.
Held: The plaintiff’s appeal succeeded. Damages for personal injury were . .
Approved – British Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co v Underground Electric Railways Co (London) Limited HL 1912
The plaintiffs purchased eight steam turbines from the defendants. They later proved defective, and the plaintiffs sought damages. In the meantime they purchased replacements, more effective than the original specifications. In the result the . .
Approved – Admiralty Commissioners v Steamship Amerika (Owners), The Amerika PC 13-Aug-1917
The Admiralty sought to recover as an item of loss the pensions payable to the widows of sailors killed in an accident to a submarine: . .
Distinguished – Browning v War Office CA 1962
The plaintiff had been a technical sergeant in the United States Air Force; his pay had been $450 per month and after his injuries caused by the negligence of the defendants’ driver he received only a ‘veteran’s benefit’ of $217 per month
Cited – Bee v Jenson CA 13-Sep-2007
The claimant hired a car whilst his own, damaged by the defendant, was being repaired. His insurer sought to recover the cost from the other driver. The insurer had first arranged te hire with one company, but then another provided a finacial reward . .
Cited – Gard Marine and Energy Ltd and Another v China National Chartering Company Ltd and Another SC 10-May-2017
The dispute followed the grounding of a tanker the Ocean Victory. The ship was working outside of a safe port requirement in the charterparty agreement. The contract required the purchase of insurance against maritime war and protection and . .
Cited – Fulton Shipping Inc of Panama v Globalia Business Travel SAU (Formerly Travelplan SAU) of Spain ComC 21-May-2014
The former owners of the ‘New Flameno’ appealed from an arbitration award. A charter of the vessel had been repudiated with two years left to run. The owners chose to sell. They made a substantial profit over the price they would have received after . .
Cited – Fulton Shipping Inc of Panama v Globalia Business Travel Sau CA 21-Dec-2015
The charter of the ship ‘New Flameno’ was repudiated two years early. The owners sold it, making rather more profit than they would have if sold after the end of the term. The court was now asked how the profit should affect the loss claim on the . .
Cited – Globalia Business Travel Sau of Spain v Fulton Shipping Inc of Panama SC 28-Jun-2017
The court was asked how to assess damages arising out of the repudiation of a charterparty by charterers of a cruise ship, the ‘New Flameno’. The charter ending two years early, the owners chose to sell, and in the result got a much better price . .
Cited – Lowick Rose Llp v Swynson Ltd and Another SC 11-Apr-2017
Losses arose from the misvaluation of a company before its purchase. The respondent had funded the purchase, relying upon a valuation by the predecessor of the appellant firm of accountants. Further advances had been made when the true situation was . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages

Updated: 22 January 2022; Ref: scu.195740

Parry v Cleaver: HL 5 Feb 1969

PI Damages not Reduced for Own Pension

The plaintiff policeman was disabled by the negligence of the defendant and received a disablement pension. Part had been contributed by himself and part by his employer.
Held: The plaintiff’s appeal succeeded. Damages for personal injury were not to be reduced by deducting the full net value of the ill-health pension from the net value of the pension which the petitioner would otherwise have received during the period after his normal retirement date. Such a pension should not be deducted from loss of earnings prior to the normal retirement date, because a wrongdoer should not benefit from the fact that an individual had chosen to provide for his own misfortune or that he was receiving benefits from the public at large or benevolence from friends or relations. Gourley’s case had nothing to do with the question whether sums coming to the plaintiff as proceeds of insurance or by reason of benevolence should be deducted. ‘Two questions can arise. First, what did the plaintiff lose as a result of the accident? What are the sums which he would have received but for the accident but which by reason of the accident he can no longer get? And secondly, what are the sums which he did in fact receive as a result of the accident but which he would not have received if there had been no accident? And then the question arises whether the latter sums must be deducted from the former in assessing the damages.’
Lord Reid said: ‘It would be revolting to the ordinary man’s sense of justice, and therefore contrary to public policy, that the sufferer should have his damages reduced so that he would gain nothing from the benevolence of his friends or relations or the public at large, and that the only gainer would be the wrongdoer. We do not have to decide in this case whether these considerations also apply to public benevolence in the shape of various uncovenanted benefits from the welfare state, but it may be thought that Parliament did not intend them to be for the benefit of the wrongdoer.’ and
‘As regards moneys coming to the plaintiff under a contract of insurance, I think that the real and substantial reason for disregarding them is that the plaintiff has bought them and that it would be unjust and unreasonable to hold that the money which he prudently spent on premiums and the benefit from it should ensure to the benefit of the tortfeasor . . why should it make any difference that he insured by arrangement with his employer rather than with an insurance company?’ and
‘It is generally recognised that pensionable employment is more valuable to a man than the mere amount of his weekly wage. It is more valuable because by reason of the terms of his employment money is being regularly set aside to swell his ultimate pension rights whether on retirement or on disablement. His earnings are greater than his weekly wage. His employer is willing to pay pounds 24 per week to obtain his services and it seems to me that he ought to be regarded as having earned that sum per week. The products of the sums paid into the pension fund are in fact delayed remuneration for his current work. That is why pensions are regarded as earned income.
But the man does not get back in the end the accumulated sums paid into the fund on his behalf. This is a form of insurance. Like every kind of insurance what he gets back depends on how things turn out. He may never be off duty and may die before retiring age leaving no dependants. Then he gets nothing back. Or he may by getting a retirement or disablement pension get much more back than has been paid in on his behalf. I can see no relevant difference between this and any other form of insurance. So, if insurance benefits are not deductible in assessing damages and remoteness is out of the way, why should his pension be deductible? . .
A pension is intrinsically of a different kind from wages. If one confines one’s attention to the period immediately after the disablement it is easy to say that but for the accident he would have got pounds x, now he gets pounds y, so his loss is pounds x -pounds y. But the true solution is that wages are a reward for contemporaneous work but that a pension is the fruit, through insurance, of all the money which was set aside in the past in respect of his past work. They are different in kind’.
Lord Wilberforce: ‘Lastly I see no inconsistency between (i) not bringing the police pension into account against the civilian wages (periods 2 and 3) and (ii) bringing the reduced police pension into account against the greater he would have received if he had not been injured (period 4). These are two quite different pension equations and the difficult legal questions which relate to the earlier period never arise in relation to period 4, where all that is needed is an arithmetical calculation of pension loss. On the two related grounds, each of which would separately justify the conclusion, namely, (a) that the police pension is payable in any event and is not dependent on loss of earning capacity and (b) that the pension is to be regarded as the reward or earning of pre-injury service and therefore not entering into the computation of lost post-injury wages, I would reach the conclusion that it should not be deducted against damages recoverable from a third person for approved loss of earning capacity.’
Lord Reid said: ‘It is said to make all the difference that both the future wages of which he has been deprived by the fault of the defendant, and the benefit which has accrued by reason of his disablement come from the same source or arise out of the same contract. This seems to be founded on an idea of remoteness which is, I think, misconceived. Remoteness from the defendant’s point of view is a familiar conception in connection with damages. He pays damages for loss of a kind which he might have foreseen but not for loss of a kind which was not foreseeable by him. But here we are not dealing with that kind of remoteness. No one has ever suggested that the defendant gets the benefit of receipts by the plaintiff after his accident if they are of a kind which he could have foreseen, but not if they are of a kind which he could not have foreseen, or vice versa That the plaintiff may, in consequence of the defendant’s fault, receive benefit from benevolence, or insurance is no more or no less foreseeable or remote than that he may get a benefit from a pension to be paid by his employer. If remoteness has any relevance here it is quite a different kind of remoteness-the connection or absence of connection between the source of the benefit and the source of the wages. But what has that got to do with the defendant? It is rational to make the extent of the defendant’s liability depend on remoteness from his point of view-on what he knew or could or should have foreseen. But it is, to my mind, an irrational technicality to make that depend on the remoteness or closeness of relationship between the plaintiff’s source of loss and source of gain. Surely the distinction between receipts which must be brought into account and those which must not must depend not on their source but on their intrinsic nature.’
and: ‘A pension is intrinsically of a different kind from wages. If one confines one’s attention to the period immediately after the disablement it is easy to say that but for the accident be would have got pounds X, now he gets pounds Y, so his loss is pounds X-Y. But the true situation is that wages are a reward for contemporaneous work, but that a pension is the fruit, through insurance of all the money which was set aside in the past in respect of his past work. They are different in kind.’

Lord Reid, Lord Wilberforce, Lord Moris of Borth-y-Gest and Lord Pearson dissenting
[1970] AC 1, [1969] UKHL 2, [1969] 2 WLR 821, [1969] 1 All ER 555, [1969] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 183
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Explained – British Transport Commission v Gourley HL 1955
It is a universal rule that the plaintiff cannot recover more than he has lost and that realities must be considered rather than technicalities. The damages to be awarded for personal injury including loss of earnings should reflect the fact that . .
Approved – Redpath v Belfast and County Down Railway CANI 1947
The plaintiff sought damages for personal injury. The defendant company sought to bring into account sums received by the plaintiff from a distress fund to which members of the public had contributed. Plaintiff’s counsel were said to having . .
Cited – Payne v Railway Executive 1951
Disablement pensions, whether voluntary or not, are to be ignored in the assessment of damages. . .
Cited – Paff v Speed 6-Apr-1961
(High Court of Australia) ‘The first consideration is what is the nature of the loss or damage which the plaintiff says he has suffered.’
Damages – Personal injuries – Matters to be considered in reduction of damages – Plaintiff policeman at . .
Appeal from – Parry v Cleaver CA 9-May-1967
The plaintiff policeman was hit by a car whilst he was on traffic duty. When he claimed damages in negligence the defendant sought to have deducted from his award an amount received by way of additional pension payments received which had been . .
Approved – Bradburn v Great Western Rail Co CEC 1874
The plaintiff had received a sum of money from a private insurer to compensate him for lost income as a result of an accident caused by the negligence of the defendant.
Held: He was entitled to full damages as well as the payment from the . .
Disapprove – Browning v War Office CA 1962
The plaintiff had been a technical sergeant in the United States Air Force; his pay had been $450 per month and after his injuries caused by the negligence of the defendants’ driver he received only a ‘veteran’s benefit’ of $217 per month
Cited – Forgie v Henderson 1818
The pursuer was assaulted by the defender. During part of his resulting illness he received an allowance from a friendly society.
Held: In charging the jury, the Lord Chief said ‘I do not think that you can deduct the allowance from the . .
Cited – Dalby v The India and London Life Assurance Company HL 9-May-1851
An insurance company (Anchor) had taken out insurance with the defendant on the life of the Duke of Cambridge in the sum of pounds 1000 for which it paid a yearly premium during the life of the Duke. Anchor had itself granted policies of insurance . .
Cited – Livingstone v Rawyards Coal Co HL 13-Feb-1880
Damages or removal of coal under land
User damages were awarded for the unauthorised removal of coal from beneath the appellant’s land, even though the site was too small for the appellant to have mined the coal himself. The appellant was also awarded damages for the damage done to the . .
Cited – Jones v Gleeson 1965
(Australia) When a policeman who had retired retired through injury sought damages for that injury, the pension he received as a result of his retirement was to be ignored entirely: ‘In recent years, however, the relevance or otherwise to the issue . .
Cited – Eldridge v Videtta 1964
The court declined to take into account to reduce the damages, benefits received under the national assistance scheme. . .
Cited – British Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co v Underground Electric Railways Co (London) Limited HL 1912
The plaintiffs purchased eight steam turbines from the defendants. They later proved defective, and the plaintiffs sought damages. In the meantime they purchased replacements, more effective than the original specifications. In the result the . .
Cited – Foxley v Olton 1964
Unemployment benefits received by a plaintiff must be set off against a claim for damages. . .
Cited – Admiralty Commissioners v Steamship Amerika (Owners), The Amerika PC 13-Aug-1917
The Admiralty sought to recover as an item of loss the pensions payable to the widows of sailors killed in an accident to a submarine: . .
Cited – Elstob v Robinson 1964
The defendant sought to have taken into account when calculating the plaintiff’s damages a service pension he received. . .
Cited – Admiralty Commissioners v SS Volute (Owners), The Volute HL 1921
When assessing negligence the court must ask whether it was ‘so much mixed up with the state of things brought about’ by the defendant that ‘in the ordinary plain common sense of this business’ it must be regarded as having contributed to the . .
Cited – Admiralty Commissioners v Valeria (Owners) 1922
The court referred to the correct sum of damages as that pecuniary sum which will make good to the sufferer, so far as money can do, the loss which he has suffered as the natural result of the wrong done to him. . .
Cited – Carroll v Hooper 1964
The defendant asked the court to deduct from the plaintiff’s damages the service pension he received.
Held: It should be disregarded as discretionary. . .
Cited – Baker v Dalgleish Steam Shipping Co Ltd 1922
The court considered the deduction of a pension from an award of damages: ‘The fact that the continuance of the pensions is in the discretion of the Minister does not, in my opinion, exclude them from consideration. The reasonable expectation of . .
Cited – Smith v Canadian Pacific Railway Company 1963
(Canada – Saskatchan) A police officer had retired through injury and sought damages. The defendant sought to deduct his pension.
Held: His police pension was to be apportioned so that the portion attributable to his own contributions were to . .
Cited – Admiralty Commissioners v Chekiang (Owner), The Chekiang HL 1926
There had been a collision at sea in which the defendant’s vessel caused damage to HMS Cairo. The House was asked to assess damages after damage to the plaintiff’s vessel, and whether in the case of a warship the registrar had been entitled to award . .
Cited – Parsons v BNM Laboratories Ltd CA 1963
Unemployment benefit was deductible from damages for wrongful dismissal. The benefit was not ‘purely personal’, the employer had made a contribution, and the plaintif had a duty to mitigate his loss (Sellers LJ). The benefit was not ‘truly . .
Cited – Liesbosch Dredger (Owners of) v Owners of SS Edison, The Liesbosch HL 28-Feb-1933
The ship Edison fouled the moorings of the Liesbosch resulting in the total loss of the dredger when it sank. It had been engaged on work in the harbour under contract with the harbour board. All the owners’ liquid resources were engaged in the . .
Cited – Liffen v Watson 1940
After being injured in an accident a domestic servant was unable to continue in her employment in which she received pounds 1 a week wages and board and lodging. After the accident she went to live with her father to whom she made no payment for . .
Cited – Redpath v Belfast and County Down Railway CANI 1947
The plaintiff sought damages for personal injury. The defendant company sought to bring into account sums received by the plaintiff from a distress fund to which members of the public had contributed. Plaintiff’s counsel were said to having . .
Cited – Graham v Baker 1961
The court considered whether a pension received by a plaintiff should affect the damages to be awarded. . .
Cited – Shearman v Folland CA 1950
The injured plaintiff had lived before the accident in hotels to which she paid seven guineas a week for board and lodging. After the accident she spent just over a year in nursing homes at a cost of twelve guineas a week exclusive of medical . .
Cited – National Insurance Co of New Zealand Ltd The v Espagne 6-Apr-1961
(High Court of Australia) The court considered the relevance of a pension awarded to an injured person.
Damages – Action for personal injuries caused by negligence – Matters to be considered in reduction of damages – Invalid pension – Awarded . .
Cited – Payne v Railway Executive 2-Jan-1951
A Royal Navy sailor was disabled by a railway accident and was awarded a disability pension of pounds 2 16s. 3d. per week. At first instance J Sellers had held that Bradburn’s case applied so as to prevent deduction of the value of the pension. If . .
Cited – Judd v Board of Governors, Hammersmith, West London and St. Mark’s Hospitals 1960
The plaintiff, a local government officer had made compulsory contributions to his superannuation scheme.
Held: A contributory pension received early on an injury was to be ignored until the normal retiring age, but deducted for the later . .
Cited – Peacock v Amusement Equipment Co Ltd CA 1954
The deceased received fatal injuries riding a miniature railway. The plaintiff, her surving husband, sought damages under the Fatal Accidents Acts. Her estate included a grocery shop with a flat, in which she and the plaintiff resided. She left the . .
Cited – Watson v Ramsay 1960
(New South Wales) The right to have a pension or the chance of having a pension from his employer is part of what a servant earns by his labour. The distinction is not valid. . .
Cited – Monmouthshire County Council v Smith 1956
The court considered whether a police pension which became payable on early retirement through injury was deductible from damages awarded for the injury.
Held: Yes. . .
Cited – Metropolitan Police District Receiver v Croydon Corporation 1957
Where an employer is under a statutory obligation to pay wages whether the employee is fit for duty or not, the law is that the employee has suffered no loss and can recover no damages, and where the plaintiff continues to be paid these sums, they . .

Cited by:
Cited – Cantwell v Criminal Injuries Compensation Board IHCS 9-Feb-2000
The petitioner appealed a refusal of his claim for compensation. He was a serving police officer injured whilst arresting an offender. He had retired on medical grounds and received pensions, which the Board found deductible from any award reducing . .
Cited – Pirelli General Plc and others v Gaca CA 26-Mar-2004
The claimant was awarded damages from his employers, who claimed that the benefits received by the claimant from an insurance policy to which the defendants had contributed should be set off against the claim.
Held: McCamley was no longer good . .
Cited – Hussain v New Taplow Paper Mills Ltd HL 1988
The plaintiff was injured in an accident at work. His employer was partly responsible. For 13 weeks he received full sick pay in accordance with his contract. He then received half his pre-accident earnings under the permanent health insurance . .
Cited – Hunt v Severs HL 7-Sep-1994
The tortfeasor, a member of the claimant’s family provided her with voluntary nursing care after the injury. The equivalent cost of that care, was recoverable, but would be held on trust for the carer. The underlying rationale of English Law is to . .
Cited – Dimond v Lovell HL 12-May-2000
A claimant sought as part of her damages for the cost of hiring a care whilst her own was off the road after an accident caused by the defendant. She agreed with a hire company to hire a car, but payment was delayed until the claim was settled.
Cited – South West Trains Ltd v Wightman and Others ChD 14-Jan-1998
The trades’ union had agreed with the employer that what had been irregular and non-pensionable payments made to employees would, in future, be paid regularly, but that only certain parts of the payments become pensionable. The employer now sought . .
Cited – Cantwell v Criminal Injuries Compensation Board HL 5-Jul-2001
When calculating the losses suffered by a victim of crime, the allowance to be made for losses to a retirement pension through having to retire early should have set off against them, the benefits received by way of payments for his ill-health, . .
Explained – Auty v National Coal Board CA 1985
A widow received a widow’s pension under a Coal Board scheme on the death of her husband, which had been caused by the defendants’ negligence.
Held: She did not have to give credit for this pension when the value of her dependency on her . .
Approved – Wilson v National Coal Board HL 1981
A entire colliery closed down and all employees other than the pursuer were offered and accepted alternative employment, thus disqualifying them from receiving redundancy payments. The pursuer, who had been injured by the accident for which the . .
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 . .
Cited – Clenshaw v Tanner and others CA 27-Nov-2002
The claimant was a cyclist. He passed along inside a line of traffic, and collided with a lorry turning left into a petrol station ahead of him, suffering serious injuries. He appealed against a finding that the lorry driver had signalled and that . .
Cited – Royston Frederick Williams v BOC Gases Ltd CA 29-Mar-2000
The plaintiff claimed damages from his employer in respect of injuries suffered during the course of his employment. The defendant paid the claimant a sum to which he had no contractual entitlement, saying that it was to be treated as an advance . .
Cited – McMullen v Gibney and Gibney NIHC 13-Jan-1999
. .
Cited – Longden v British Coal Corporation HL 13-Mar-1997
The plaintiff was injured whilst at work in one of the defendant’s collieries. The House considered the deductibility from damages awarded for personal injury of a collateral benefit.
Held: The issue of deductibility where the claim is for . .
Cited – Larkham v Lynch 1974
The plaintiff had sustained serious injuries and sought damages. One item of special damages was a sum for loss of pension between the age of 60, when he would have retired, and the age of 65, which was the limit of his life expectancy as a result . .
Cited – Dews v National Coal Board HL 1988
The plaintiff miner sought damages for an injury suffered at work.
Held: An employee who had been injured at work could not recover unpaid pension contributions, which had no effect on his pension entitlement, as part of his loss of pay while . .
Cited – Longden v British Coal Corporation CA 1995
The plaintiff sought damages after being injured at work. The defendant sought to set off against the damages to be awarded sums received by way of a collateral benefit.
Held: Roch LJ said: if the plaintiff were not permitted to recover the . .
Cited – O’Brien and others v Independent Assessor HL 14-Mar-2007
The claimants had been wrongly imprisoned for a murder they did not commit. The assessor had deducted from their compensation a sum to represent the living costs they would have incurred if living freely. They also appealed differences from a . .
Cited – Knapton and others v ECC Card Clothing Ltd EAT 7-Mar-2006
EAT Unfair Dismissal: Compensation
Reversing the Employment Tribunal, in the assessment of compensation for unfair dismissal under Employment Rights Act 1996 section 123, an employee who took early receipt . .
Cited – Milner and Another v Carnival Plc (T/A Cunard) CA 20-Apr-2010
Damages for Disastrous Cruise
The claimants had gone on a cruise organised by the defendants. It was described by them as ‘the trip of a lifetime.’ It did not meet their expectations. There had been several complaints, including that the cabin was noisy as the floor flexed with . .
Cited – Cox v Ergo Versicherung Ag CA 25-Jun-2012
The deceased member of the armed forces had died in a road traffic accident in Germany. The parties didputed whether the principles governing the calculation of damages were those in the 1976 Act and UK law, or under German law.
Held: ‘There . .
Cited – Gard Marine and Energy Ltd and Another v China National Chartering Company Ltd and Another SC 10-May-2017
The dispute followed the grounding of a tanker the Ocean Victory. The ship was working outside of a safe port requirement in the charterparty agreement. The contract required the purchase of insurance against maritime war and protection and . .
Cited – Fulton Shipping Inc of Panama v Globalia Business Travel SAU (Formerly Travelplan SAU) of Spain ComC 21-May-2014
The former owners of the ‘New Flameno’ appealed from an arbitration award. A charter of the vessel had been repudiated with two years left to run. The owners chose to sell. They made a substantial profit over the price they would have received after . .
Cited – Fulton Shipping Inc of Panama v Globalia Business Travel Sau CA 21-Dec-2015
The charter of the ship ‘New Flameno’ was repudiated two years early. The owners sold it, making rather more profit than they would have if sold after the end of the term. The court was now asked how the profit should affect the loss claim on the . .
Cited – Globalia Business Travel Sau of Spain v Fulton Shipping Inc of Panama SC 28-Jun-2017
The court was asked how to assess damages arising out of the repudiation of a charterparty by charterers of a cruise ship, the ‘New Flameno’. The charter ending two years early, the owners chose to sell, and in the result got a much better price . .
Cited – Lowick Rose Llp v Swynson Ltd and Another SC 11-Apr-2017
Losses arose from the misvaluation of a company before its purchase. The respondent had funded the purchase, relying upon a valuation by the predecessor of the appellant firm of accountants. Further advances had been made when the true situation was . .
Cited – SS (Sri Lanka), Regina (on The Application of) v The Secretary of State for The Home Department CA 15-Jun-2018
The court was asked whether, in cases heard by the First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) where the credibility of the appellant is in issue, there is a rule that a delay of more than three months between the hearing of oral evidence . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Personal Injury

Leading Case

Updated: 22 January 2022; Ref: scu.181846

Dalby v The India and London Life Assurance Company: HL 9 May 1851

An insurance company (Anchor) had taken out insurance with the defendant on the life of the Duke of Cambridge in the sum of pounds 1000 for which it paid a yearly premium during the life of the Duke. Anchor had itself granted policies of insurance to a Reverend Wright on the Duke’s life in a total amount of pounds 3000. Anchor’s policy with the Defendant was ‘a cross or counter-assurance’. Before the Duke died Anchor agreed with the Reverend Wright to the surrender and cancellation of his policies in return for an annuity. The issue was whether or not it sufficed that Anchor had an interest in the Duke’s life when the policy with the Defendant was effected or whether such an interest had to subsist at the time of the Duke’s death. No one seems to have bothered with questions whether or not the Reverend Wright had an interest in the Duke’s life.
Held: It was sufficient for the interest to exist at the time the insurance was effected and that its value at that time was recoverable under Section 3. The obligation at that time to pay the Reverend Wright was ‘unquestionably an interest in the continuance of the life of the Duke’ under Section 3.
Parke B said: ‘Now, what is the meaning of this provision? On the part of the plaintiff, it is said it means only, that, in all cases in which the party insuring has an interest when he effects the policy, his right to recover and receive is to be limited to that amount; otherwise, under colour of a small interest, a wagering policy might be made to a large amount, – as it might if the first clause stood alone. The right to recover, therefore, is limited to the amount of the interest at the time of effecting the policy. Upon that value, the assured must have the amount of premium calculated: if he states it truly, no difficulty can occur: he pays in the annuity for life the fair value of the sum payable at death. If he misrepresents, by over-rating the value of the interest, it is his own fault, in paying more in the way of annuity than he ought; and he can recover only the true value of the interest in respect of which he effected the policy: but that value he can recover. Thus, the liability of the insurer becomes constant and uniform, to pay an unvarying sum on the death of the cestui que vie, in consideration of an unvarying and uniform premium paid by the assured. The bargain is fixed as to the amount on both sides. This construction is effected by reading the word ‘hath’ as referring to the time of effecting the policy. By the 1st section, the assured is prohibited from effecting an insurance on a life or on an event wherein he ‘shall have’ no interest, – that is, at the time of assuring: and then the 3rd section requires that he shall recover only the interest that he ‘hath’. If he has an interest when the policy is made, he is not wagering or gaming, and the prohibition of the statute does not apply to his case. Had the 3rd section provided that no more than the amount or value of the interest should be insured, a question might have been raised, whether, if the insurance had been for a larger amount, the whole would not have been void: but the prohibition to recover or receive more than that amount, obviates any difficulty on that head.’

Parke B
(1854) 15 CB 364, [1843-60] All ER Rep 1040, [1851] EngR 463, (1851) 4 De G and Sm 462, (1851) 64 ER 913
Commonlii
Insurance Act 1774 3
England and Wales
Cited by:
Applied – Feasey v Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada and Another: Steamship Mutual Underwriting Association (Bermuda) Ltd v Feasey ComC 17-May-2002
The fact that there was more than one insurance policy in place for the same interest would not preclude a claim under one of them. A mutual underwriting group insured members against personal injury and so forth through ‘lineslip’ policies. The . .
Cited – Parry v Cleaver HL 5-Feb-1969
PI Damages not Reduced for Own Pension
The plaintiff policeman was disabled by the negligence of the defendant and received a disablement pension. Part had been contributed by himself and part by his employer.
Held: The plaintiff’s appeal succeeded. Damages for personal injury were . .
Cited – Bradburn v Great Western Rail Co CEC 1874
The plaintiff had received a sum of money from a private insurer to compensate him for lost income as a result of an accident caused by the negligence of the defendant.
Held: He was entitled to full damages as well as the payment from the . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Insurance, Damages

Updated: 22 January 2022; Ref: scu.180087

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 to seek damages against advisers to a limited company, where the loss claimed was over and above that suffered by the company. Damages for distress should not normally be awarded in an action for breach of contract. The public interests in the claimant bringing one action to recover all his losses remained appropriate, but must not be applied mechanically. A settlement in favour of the company, need not release the defendant from an action by the shareholder. Asking whether a plea raised or an issue challenged amounted to an abuse of process required a broad, merits-based judgment which takes account of the public and private interests involved and also takes account of all the facts of the case, focusing attention on the crucial question whether, in all the circumstances, a party is misusing or abusing the process of the court by seeking to raise before it the issue which could have been raised before. As one cannot comprehensively list all possible forms of abuse, so one cannot formulate any hard and fast rule to determine whether, on given facts, abuse is to be found or not . . It is preferable to ask whether in all the circumstances a party’s conduct is an abuse than to ask whether the conduct is an abuse and then, if it is, to ask whether the abuse is excused or justified by special circumstances.
Lord Hutton said: ‘where a shareholder is personally owed a duty of care by a defendant and a breach of that duty causes him loss, he is not debarred from recovering damages because the defendant owed a separate and similar duty of care to the company, provided that the loss suffered by the shareholder is separate and distinct from the loss suffered by the company. ‘
Lord Bingham of Cornhill said: ‘But Henderson v. Henderson abuse of process, as now understood, although separate and distinct from cause of action estoppel and issue estoppel, has much in common with them. The underlying public interest is the same: that there should be finality in litigation and that a party should not be twice vexed in the same matter. This public interest is reinforced by the current emphasis on efficiency and economy in the conduct of litigation, in the interests of the parties and the public as a whole. The bringing of a claim or the raising of a defence in later proceedings may, without more, amount to abuse if the court is satisfied (the onus being on the party alleging abuse) that the claim or defence should have been raised in the earlier proceedings if it was to be raised at all. I would not accept that it is necessary, before abuse may be found, to identify any additional element such as a collateral attack on a previous decision or some dishonesty, but where those elements are present the later proceedings will be much more obviously abusive, and there will rarely be a finding of abuse unless the later proceeding involves what the court regards as unjust harassment of a party. It is, however, wrong to hold that because a matter could have been raised in early proceedings it should have been, so as to render the raising of it in later proceedings necessarily abusive. That is to adopt too dogmatic an approach to what should in my opinion be a broad, merits-based judgment which takes account of the public and private interests involved and also takes account of all the facts of the case, focusing attention on the crucial question whether, in all the circumstances, a party is misusing or abusing the process of the court by seeking to raise before it the issue which could have been raised before.’

Lord Bingham of Cornhill Lord Goff of Chieveley Lord Cooke of Thorndon Lord Hutton Lord Millett
Gazette 05-Jan-2001, Times 20-Dec-2000, Gazette 22-Feb-2001, [2000] UKHL 65, [2001] 2 WLR 72, [2001] 1 All ER 481, [2002] 2 AC 31
House of Lords, Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
Explained – Henderson v Henderson 20-Jul-1843
Abuse of Process and Re-litigation
The court set down the principles to be applied in abuse of process cases, where a matter was raised again which should have been dealt with in earlier proceedings.
Sir James Wigram VC said: ‘In trying this question I believe I state the rule . .
Approved – Gleeson v J Wippell and Co Ltd ChD 1977
The court considered the circumstances giving rise to a plea of res judicata, and proposed a test of privity in cases which did not fall into any recognised category. ‘Second, it seems to me that the sub-stratum of the doctrine is that a man ought . .
Cited – Greenhalgh v Mallard CA 1943
The court said of certain pre-emption provisions: ‘in the case of the restriction of transfer of shares I think it is right for the court to remember that a share, being personal property, is prima facie transferable, although the conditions of the . .
Cited – Yat Tung Investment Co Ltd v Dao Heng Bank Ltd PC 1975
Restraint of Second Action as Abuse
Hong Kong – A company purchased a property from the defendant bank who had taken it back into possession from a former borrower. The company itself fell into arrears, the property was taken back again and resold. The company sought a declaration . .
Cited – Amalgamated Investment and Property Co Ltd (in Liq) v Texas Commerce International Bank Ltd CA 1982
The court explained the nature of an estoppel by convention.
Lord Denning MR said: ‘The doctrine of estoppel is one of the most flexible and useful in the armoury of the law. But it has become overloaded with cases. That is why I have not gone . .
Cited – Brisbane City Council v Attorney General for Queensland PC 1978
Lord Wilberforce approved Somervell LJ’s words in Greenhalgh: ‘This is the true basis of the doctrine in Henderson v Henderson and it ought only to be applied when the facts are such as to amount to an abuse: otherwise there is a danger of a party . .
Cited – Hunter v Chief Constable of the West Midlands Police HL 19-Nov-1981
No collateral attack on Jury findigs.
An attempt was made to open up in a civil action, allegations of assaults by the police prior to the making of confessions which had been disposed of in a voir dire in the course of a criminal trial. The plaintiffs had imprisoned having spent many . .
Cited – Bragg v Oceanus Mutual Underwriting Association (Bermuda) Ltd CA 1982
The court considered the ability to prevent relitigation of issues already decided. The Court identified some of the limits of the abuse jurisdiction. Kerr LJ said: ‘To take the authorities first, it is clear that an attempt to relitigate in another . .
Cited – Ashmore v British Coal Corporation CA 1990
The plaintiff was one of many female employees who complained to the industrial tribunal that she was paid less by the defendant than her male counterparts. Sample cases were selected for trial and the others stayed pending a decision. It was an . .
Cited – Vervaeke v Smith HL 1983
A petitioner for a decree of nullity of an English marriage in the English courts on the grounds of lack of consent to the marriage, having failed to obtain such decree, obtained a declaration from the Belgian court that the English marriage, was . .
Cited – House of Spring Gardens v Waite CA 1991
The principle of abuse of process is capable of applying where the relevant earlier proceedings have taken place before a foreign court (Ireland). In this case the defendants argued that the judgment obtained in Ireland had been obtained . .
Cited – Arnold v National Westminster Bank Plc HL 1991
Tenants invited the court to construe the terms of a rent review provision in the sub-underlease under which they held premises. The provision had been construed in a sense adverse to them in earlier proceedings before Walton J, but they had been . .
Cited – Talbot v Berkshire County Council CA 23-Mar-1993
In a motor accident, both driver and passenger were injured. The passenger sued the driver. The driver’s insurers, without notice to the driver, made a third party claim against the Berkshire County Council, claiming contribution as between joint . .
Cited – C (A Minor) v Hackney London Borough Council CA 10-Nov-1995
The mother had claimed in damages for the injuries to her health from the landlord authority’s failure to repair. Her child then brought a subsequent action in respect of his own injuries. The authority claimed the action should be stopped as res . .
Cited – Barrow v Bankside Members Agency Limited CA 10-Nov-1995
Mr Barrow was a member of an action group which had successfully sued a number of members’ agents for negligent underwriting. Having substantially succeeded, but recovered only a proportion of the damages he had claimed, Mr Barrow issued fresh . .
Cited – Manson v Vooght and others CA 12-Jun-1998
The plaintiff had sued administrative receivers of a company of which he had been managing director and principal shareholder in a 1990 action which culminated in a judgment adverse to him in 1993. Other proceedings and other judgments, also in . .
Cited – Bradford and Bingley Building Society v Seddon and Hancock; Walsh and Rhodes (Trading As Hancocks (a Firm) CA 11-Mar-1999
There was an unsatisfied judgment on a claim by a defendant in an earlier action against a third party. In a subsequent action against the defendant the latter issued third party proceedings against the original and different third parties.
Cited – Lee v Sheard CA 1956
The negligence of a car driver resulted in an injury to the plaintiff who was one of two directors and shareholders of a limited company and did outside work of buying and selling linen goods for it. As a consequence of the accident the plaintiff . .
Cited – Prudential Assurance Co Ltd v Newman Industries Ltd (No 2) CA 1982
A plaintiff shareholder cannot recover damages merely because the company in which he has an interest has suffered damage. He cannot recover a sum equal to the diminution in the market value of his shares, or equal to the likely diminution in . .
Approved – R P Howard Ltd and Witchell v Woodman Matthews and Co (a firm) 1983
The solicitor defendant knew that the company was a family company effectively run by Mr Witchell from whom they received their instructions. The question raised was as to the duty of the solicitor to company and director.
Held: There is no . .
Cited – George Fischer (Great Britain) Ltd v Multi Construction Ltd., Dexion Ltd. (third party) 1995
The plaintiff contracted with the defendant for the defendant to install equipment on the premises of one of the claimant’s subsidiaries. The equipment was to be used by the subsidiary. The equipment was defective and damage was suffered by the . .
Cited – Christensen v Scott 1996
(New Zealand Court of Appeal) Thomas J said: ‘the diminution in the value of Mr and Mrs Christensen’s shares in the company is by definition a personal loss and not a corporate loss. The loss suffered by the company is the loss of the lease and the . .
Cited – Barings Plc and Another v Coopers and Lybrand (A Firm) and Others ChD 13-Aug-1996
The need to reach one conclusion justified service of proceedings overseas on a firm’s partners, where there was a genuine issue to be decided . .
Cited – Barings Plc and Another v Coopers and Lybrand (A Firm) and Others CA 6-Dec-1996
Whether a duty of care exists from the auditors of a subsidiary, towards its parent company is a triable issue. . .
Cited – Stein v Blake and others CA 13-Oct-1997
The defendants challenged leave to appeal given to the plaintiff against dismissal of his claim following the Prudential Assurance case.
Held: The issue was whether the plaintiff can recover the loss which he has allegedly sustained by reason . .
Cited – Gerber Garment Technology Inc v Lectra Systems Limited Lectra Systemes SA CA 18-Dec-1996
The plaintiffs claimed damages for patent infringement. Some of the lost profits for which the plaintiff company claimed damages were suffered by subsidiary companies in which it held all the shares.
Held: When a shareholder has a cause of . .
Cited – Addis v Gramophone Company Limited HL 26-Jul-1909
Mr Addis was wrongfully and contumeliously dismissed from his post as the defendant’s manager in Calcutta. He sought additional damages for the manner of his dismissal.
Held: It did not matter whether the claim was under wrongful dismissal. . .
Cited – Watts and Co v Morrow CA 30-Jul-1991
The plaintiff had bought a house on the faith of the defendant’s report that there were only limited defects requiring repair. In fact the defects were much more extensive. The defendant surveyor appealed against an award of damages after his . .
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 . .
Cited – Taylors Fashions Ltd v Liverpool Victoria Trustees Co Ltd ChD 1981
The fundamental principle that equity is concerned to prevent unconscionable conduct permeates all the elements of the doctrine of estoppel. In the light of the more recent cases, the principle ‘requires a very much broader approach which is . .
Cited – Henderson v Merrett Syndicates Ltd HL 25-Jul-1994
Lloyds Agents Owe Care Duty to Member; no Contract
Managing agents conducted the financial affairs of the Lloyds Names belonging to the syndicates under their charge. It was alleged that they managed these affairs with a lack of due careleading to enormous losses.
Held: The assumption of . .
Cited – 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 – In re Windsor Steam Coal Co. (1901) Ltd 1929
The courts look more favourably on applications by gratuitous trustees than on those by paid trustees. In a company winding up the liquidator may be liable to the company for negligence on his part in making a compromise. . .
Cited – Hayes and Another v Dodd CA 7-Jul-1988
The court considered what damages might be paid for inconvenience and distress. . .
Cited – In re Home and Colonial Insurance Co Ltd 1930
. .
Cited – Lips Maritime Corp. v President of India PC 1988
Lord Brandon of Oakbrook: ‘There is no such thing as a cause of action in damages for late payment of damages. The only remedy which the law affords for delay in paying damages is the discretionary award of interest pursuant to statute.’ . .
Cited – Bailey v Bullock 1950
The court awarded damages against solicitors for the inconvenience to the plaintiff of having to live in an overcrowded house. . .
Cited – Malik v Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI); Mahmud v Bank of Credit and Commerce International HL 12-Jun-1997
Allowance of Stigma Damages
The employees claimed damages, saying that the way in which their employer had behaved during their employment had led to continuing losses, ‘stigma damages’ after the termination.
Held: It is an implied term of any contract of employment that . .
Cited – Walker and others v Stones and others CA 19-Jul-2000
Beneficiaries under a trust sought damages from a solicitor trustee, and the firm of which he was a partner.
Held: Where a trustee acted in breach of trust in a claimed belief that he was acting in the interests of the beneficiaries, but no . .
Cited – Heron International v Lord Grade, Associated Communications Corp. Plc. and Others CA 1983
In the course of a contested take-over bid, the directors of the target company who owned a majority of the company’s voting shares were alleged, in breach of their duties both to the company and to its shareholders, to have accepted proposals which . .
Cited – Sheriff v Klyne Tugs (Lowestoft) Ltd CA 24-Jun-1999
The Claimant complained to an industrial tribunal of unlawful racial discrimination. He had suffered a nervous breakdown and was certified as unfit for work due to stress. The employer had compromised all claims justiciable by the Employment . .
Appeal from – Johnson v Gore Wood and Co (a Firm) CA 12-Nov-1998
The claimant had previously issued a claim against the defendant solicitors through his company. He now sought to pursue a claim in his own name. It was resisted as an abuse of process, and on the basis that no personal duty of care was owed to the . .

Cited by:
Cited – Giles v Rhind ChD 24-Jul-2001
The company had suffered losses after an alleged breach of confidence by a director. The applicant sought to recover his losses as a shareholder, after the company became unable or unwilling itself to pursue an action to recover the losses it had . .
Cited – Farley v Skinner HL 11-Oct-2001
The claimant sought damages from the defendant surveyor. He had asked the defendant whether the house he was to buy was subject to aircraft noise. After re-assurance, he bought the house. The surveyor was wrong and negligent. A survey would not . .
Cited – Barings Plc and Another v Coopers and Lybrand and Others; etc ChD 23-Nov-2001
The applicant company employed a trader who, through manipulation of trading systems ran up losses sufficient to bankrupt the company. They sought recovery from the defendant auditors for failing to spot the mis-trading and prevent continuing . .
Applied – Dr H Platt, NHS Executive HQ, Department Of Health v R Chaudhary and Others, R Chaudhary and others EAT 20-Dec-2001
The Authority and other respondents appealed a refusal to strike out the applicant’s claim as an abuse of process, on the basis that other proceedings were current between the same parties at another tribunal. Abuse of process is distinct from cause . .
Cited – Time Group Limited v Computer 2000 Distribution Limited and IBM United Kingdom Limited TCC 4-Feb-2002
Computers had been supplied by the second defendant to the claimant and first defendant at different times for exclusive distribution in the UK. Defects were alleged. The case concerned applications made for dismissal of a case as an abuse of . .
Cited – Giles v Rhind CA 17-Oct-2002
An action by a company under a shareholder’s agreement was compromised. The other shareholder now sought to commence an action against the party in breach for his personal losses. The defendant argued that the company’s compromise was binding also . .
Cited – Motorola Credit Corporation v Uzan and others (No 2) CA 12-Jun-2003
World-wide freezing orders had been made under the 1982 Act. The defendants were members of a Turkish family with substantial business interests in the telecommunications industry. In breach of orders made in the US some defendants had sought to . .
Cited – Chagos Islanders v The Attorney General, Her Majesty’s British Indian Ocean Territory Commissioner QBD 9-Oct-2003
The Chagos Islands had been a British dependent territory since 1814. The British government repatriated the islanders in the 1960s, and the Ilois now sought damages for their wrongful displacement, misfeasance, deceit, negligence and to establish a . .
Cited – Chappell v Somers and Blake (a Firm) ChD 8-Jul-2003
The will gave the deceased’s property to the local church. The claimant executrix instructed the defendants to administer the estate, but later terminated the retainer saying that they had done nothing for many years, depriving the estate of rents. . .
Cited – Wiltshire v Powell and others CA 7-May-2004
The claimant sought a declaration as to the ownership of an aircraft. Saying he had bought it in good faith from E H and S, who in turn similarly claimed to have bought it from Ebbs. The defendant had obtained a judgment that he was owner as against . .
Cited – Celador Productions Ltd v Melville ChD 21-Oct-2004
The applicants each alleged breach of copyright and misuse of confidential information in the format of the television program ‘Who wants to be a Millionaire’. The defendant appealed a refusal to strike out the claim. It was not contended that no . .
Cited – Collins Stewart Ltd and Another v The Financial Times Ltd QBD 20-Oct-2004
The claimants sought damages for defamation. The claimed that the article had caused very substantial losses (andpound;230 million) to them by affecting their market capitalisation value. The defendant sought to strike out that part of the claim. . .
Cited – Hormel Foods Corporation v Antilles Landscape Investments NV ChD 24-Jan-2005
The claimant had alread challenged the validity of the defendant’s registered trade mark, but sought to do so now on grounds which could have been advanced in the earlier case. The claimant owned the trade mark ‘SPAM’ for canned meats, and the . .
Cited – Ganesmoorthy v Ganesmoorthy CA 16-Oct-2002
The parties had divorced. The wife alleged a serious assault against her husband, and instructed a claims firm to recover damages from him. Her ancillary relief claim in the divorce was compromised with her having sought to rely upon the assault, . .
Cited – Weir and others v Secretary of State for Transport and Another ChD 14-Oct-2005
The claimants were shareholders in Railtrack. They complained that the respondent had abused his position to place the company into receivership so as to avoid paying them compensation on a repurchase of the shares. Mr Byers was accused of ‘targeted . .
Cited – David v Honeywell Normalair-Garrett Ltd QBD 2-Mar-2006
The claimant sought damages for personal injuries arising from exposure to depleted uranium whilst working for the defendant. An earlier claim had been compromised. The defendant denied liabilty and relied also on the compromise.
Held: The . .
Cited – Meretz Investments Nv and Another v ACP Ltd and others ChD 30-Jan-2006
The applicant challenged the exercise of a power of sale under a mortgage, saying that the mortgagee’s purposes included purposes not those under the mortgage. The parties had been involved in an attempted development of a penthouse.
Held: The . .
Cited – Special Effects Ltd v L’Oreal Sa and Another CA 12-Jan-2007
The defendants had opposed the grant of the trade mark which they were now accused of infringing. The claimants said that having failed at the opposition stage, they were now estopped from challenging the validity of the mark.
Held: It was not . .
Cited – McBride v The Body Shop International Plc QBD 10-Jul-2007
The claimant sought damages for libel in an internal email written by her manager, accusing her of being a compulsive liar. The email had not been disclosed save in Employment Tribunal proceedings, and the claimant sought permission to use the email . .
Cited – Aldi Stores Ltd v WSP Group Plc and others CA 28-Nov-2007
Aldi appealed against an order striking out as an abuse of process its claims against the defendant on a construction dispute. The defendant said the claims should have been brought as part of earlier proceedings.
Held: The appeal succeeded. . .
Cited – Nelson v Greening and Sykes (Builders) Ltd CA 18-Dec-2007
The builders had obtained a charging order for the costs awarded to them in extensive litigation, and a third party costs order but without the third party having opportunity to test the bill delivered. They had agreed to sell land to the defendant, . .
Mentioned – The Thomas and Agnes Carvel Foundation v Carvel and Another ChD 11-Jun-2007
The husband and wife had made mutual wills in the US with an express agreement not to make later alterations or dispositions without the agreement of the other or at all after the first death. The wife survived, but having lost the first will made a . .
Cited – Barclays Bank Plc v Kufner ComC 10-Oct-2008
barclays_kufnerComC2008
The bank sought summary judgment under a guarantee to secure a loan to purchase a luxury yacht which was to be hired out in business. The loan had been charged against the yacht, but when the yacht was re-registered, the bank failed to re-establish . .
Cited – Campbell v Leeds United Association Football Misc 3-Apr-2009
The claimant sought damages for psychiatric injury suffered when working for the defendant who replied that the matter had already been litigated in her claims in the Employment Tribunal, and that a cause of action estoppel applied.
Held: The . .
Cited – Specialist Group International Ltd v Deakin and Another CA 23-May-2001
Law upon res judicata – action estoppel and issue estoppel and the underlying policy interest whereby there is finality in litigation and litigants are not vexed twice on the same matter.
(May LJ) ‘the authorities taken as a whole tend to . .
Cited – Stuart v Goldberg and Linde (a firm) CA 17-Jan-2008
The claimant appealed against orders preventing him from suing his former solicitors in respect of heads of claim which the court said should have been included in earlier proceedings.
Held: When deciding whether a claim was an abuse of . .
Cited – Walbrook Trustees (Jersey) Ltd and Others v Fattal and Others CA 8-Apr-2009
The parties had been involved in serial disputes regarding the management of leasehold apartments. It was now objected that the current case was an abuse of process.
Held: The appeal against the stay succeeded. The new case had been flagged up . .
Cited – Cheltenham Borough Council v Laird QBD 15-Jun-2009
The council sought damages saying that their former chief executive had not disclosed her history of depressive illness when applying for her job.
Held: The replies were not dishonest as the form could have been misconstrued. The claim failed. . .
Cited – Webster v Sandersons Solicitors (A Firm) CA 31-Jul-2009
The claimant apealed against refusal of permission to amend his claim for negligence against his former solicitors by adding claims from 1993 and 1994 . .
Cited – Matalan Retail Ltd v Revenue and Customs ChD 5-Aug-2009
The taxpayer imported swimwear for sale. The respondent had incorrectly indicated that such swimwear had one classification. The claimant sought to prevent the respondent reclassifying the goods, saying that they had made given binding tariff . .
Cited – Budejovicky Budvar Narodni Podnik v Anheuser-Busch Inc CA 20-Oct-2009
The parties had long disputed the use of the trade marks ‘Bud’ and ‘Budweiser’ for their beers. The claimant now said that the defendants had made an abusive registration under the 1994 Act, by requesting a declaration that the registration by the . .
Cited – Henley v Bloom CA 9-Mar-2010
Different claims allowed re-litigation
The parties had had long standing disputes as landlord and tenant. They were at one point settled, but the tenant claimed again, and the landlord sought to strike out the claim as an abuse of process, saying the claimant had failed to comply with . .
Cited – Calzaghe v Warren QBD 20-Jan-2010
The claimant boxer had secured judgement for fight fees from a company operated by the respondent manager and promoter. After the judgment the defendant had put the company into administration. The claimant now sought payment from the defendant . .
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 . .
Cited – Wahab v Khan and Others; In re Abdus Sattar Sheikh deceased ChD 12-Apr-2011
The claimant had asked the court to revoke the probate granted in his brother’s estate. He appealed now against a strike out of his request. He alleged that the will was a forgery. The executor’s and defendants were not relations of the deceased, . .
Cited – Sarwar v The Royal Bank of Scotland Plc (Rev 1) ChD 27-Jul-2011
The claimant appealed against a finding of indebtedness to the bank. He had said at trial that the bank had been charging interest at 25%. The bank denied this, but after trial it became clear that he had been correct. The bank argued for abuse of . .
Cited – Hi-Lite Electrical Ltd v Wolseley UK Ltd QBD 17-Jul-2009
The claimant sought a contribution from the defendant towards its liability for a fire at its premises, as found in earlier proceedings against the now claimant. The defendant had filed a defence merely not admitting, and not denying, responsibility . .
Cited – Bocacina Ltd v Boca Cafes Ltd IPEC 14-Oct-2013
The claimant alleged passing off by the defendant’s use of the name ‘Boca Bistro Cafe’, and subsequently ‘Bica Bistro Cafe’
Held: Where the defendant had changed its trading style during the proceedings it was possible, if the claimant . .
Cited – Gladman Commercial Properties v Fisher Hargreaves Proctor and Others CA 14-Nov-2013
The claimant appealed against the striking out of his claims for fraudulent or negligent misrepresentation as to the suitability for deveopment of two former fire service properties. The court had said that a settlement with co-tortfeasors operated . .
Cited – Joint Stock Company (Aeroflot-Russian Airlines) v Berezovsky and Another CA 16-Jan-2014
The appellant had judgments obtained in Russia against the respondent. It now appealed against a refusal of enforcement of those judgments based upon the ground that there was a complete defence to the recognition and enforcement of the judgments . .
Cited – Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd v Zodiac Seats UK Ltd SC 3-Jul-2013
Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd sought to recover damages exceeding 49,000,000 pounds for the infringement of a European Patent which did not exist in the form said to have been infringed. The Technical Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office had . .
Cited – Starlight Shipping Co v Allianz Marine and Aviation Versicherungs Ag and Others CA 20-Dec-2012
The Alexander T, owned by the appellant and insured by the respondents was a total loss. The insurers resisted payment, the appellant came to allege improperly, and the parties had settled the claim on full payment under a Tomlin Order. The owners . .
See Also – Johnson v Gore Wood and Co (A Firm) QBD 20-Feb-2002
The claimant alleged negligence by the defendant solicitors. . .
See Also – Johnson v Gore Wood and Co (A Firm) ChD 3-May-2002
The respondent firm acted on behalf of the claimant’s companies in land transactions. An option had been taken to purchase land, and he instructed the defendants to exercise it. The landowner claimed the notice to exercise the option was invalidly . .
See Also – William John Henry Johnson v Gore Wood and Co CA 3-Dec-2003
. .
See Also – William John Henry Johnson v Gore Wood and Co CA 27-Jan-2004
The defendant had made a substantial payment into court in protracted proceedings.
Held: The comparison between the payment in and the eventual amount of damages awarded should be assessed on the basis of the damages calculated as at the date . .
Discussed – International Leisure Ltd and Another v First National Trustee Company UK Ltd and Others ChD 16-Jul-2012
The court was asked as to the ambit and limits of the rule against reflective loss as discussed in Johnson v Gore Wood and Co [2002] 2 AC 1. On this occasion the issue was whether the rule debared a secured creditor of a company who had suffered . .
Cited – Christou and Another v London Borough of Haringey EAT 21-Feb-2012
EAT UNFAIR DISMISSAL – Reasonableness of dismissal
The Appellants, the social worker responsible for the care of Baby P and her team manager, were held not to have been unfairly dismissed by Haringey for . .
Cited – Christou and Another v London Borough of Haringey CA 12-Mar-2013
The appellants had been social workers involved in the care systems responsible for a child, baby P, who had been killed by his family. They challenged their dismissals. . .
Cited – Michael Wilson and Partners Ltd v Sinclair and Another CA 13-Jan-2017
The appellant company sought to recover assets which, it said, had been acquired by a former partner in breach of his obligations under the partnership agreement, but which had been taken in the names of some of the respondents. There had been an . .
Cited – Arcadia Group Ltd and Others v Telegraph Media Group Ltd QBD 8-Feb-2019
Claimant’s application for leave to withdraw request for injunction to prevent publication of stories regarding matters subject to non-disclosure agreements.
Held: Granted. An junction had been granted, but Lord Hain had disclosed protected . .
Cited – Moorjani and Others v Durban Estates Ltd and Another TCC 15-May-2019
Allegations of breach of landlords’ repairing obligations – defendants’ strike out application.
Held: ‘ the critical question is whether this second action is based on the same cause, or causes, of action, and not whether it pleads the same . .
Cited – Dexter Ltd v Vlieland-Boddy CA 2003
The court discussed the significance of Johnson v Gore Wood.
Clarke LJ said: ‘The principles to be derived from the authorities, of which by far the most important is Johnson v Gore Wood and Co [2002] 2 AC 1, can be summarised as follows:
Cited – Spicer v The Commissioner of Police of The Metropolis QBD 7-Jun-2019
The claimant said that he had been wrongly described on the defendant’s website as one of two people guilty of causing death by dangerous driving. He had been found guilty only of a much less serious offence. The court now considered the meanings of . .
Cited – Spicer v The Commissioner of Police of The Metropolis QBD 6-Jul-2020
The claimant alleged defamation. He had been acquitted of a criminal offence and said that material published by the defendant continued to imply or assert his guilt of the offence. The defendant argued truth. The claimant now sought a strike out of . .
Cited – Co-Operative Group v Virk (Valuation Officer) UTLC 22-Oct-2020
Abuse of Process in Rating Alterations
Rating – Alteration of Rating List – validity of proposal challenging alteration to list made by VO to give effect to agreement – application to strike out appeals from the Valuation Tribunal for Wales and Valuation Tribunal for England – res . .
Cited – Takhar v Gracefield Developments Ltd and Others SC 20-Mar-2019
The claimant appellant alleged that properties she owned were transferred to the first defendant under undue influence or other unconscionable conduct by the second and third defendants. The claim was dismissed. Three years later she claimed to set . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Professional Negligence, Company

Leading Case

Updated: 21 January 2022; Ref: scu.159100

Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd v Zodiac Seats UK Ltd: SC 3 Jul 2013

Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd sought to recover damages exceeding 49,000,000 pounds for the infringement of a European Patent which did not exist in the form said to have been infringed. The Technical Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office had retrospectively amended it so as to remove with effect from the date of grant all the claims said to have been infringed.
Held: Where a judgment had been given by an English court that a patent was valid and infringed, but the applicable patent was subsequently retrospectively revoked or amended, whether in England or at the European Patent Office, the defendant was entitled to rely on that revocation or amendment on an inquiry as to damages in respect of the unamended patent.
‘There are two related reasons why Zodiac cannot be precluded from relying on the decision of the TBA on the enquiry as to damages. One is that they are relying on the more limited terms of a different patent which, by virtue of the decision of the TBA, must at the time of the enquiry be treated as the only one that has ever existed. The other is that Zodiac are not seeking to reopen the question of validity determined by the Court of Appeal. The invalidity of the patent may be the reason why the TBA amended the patent, but the defendant is relying on the mere fact of amendment, not on the reasons why it happened.’
Lord Sumption analysed the defence of res judicata: ‘Res judicata is a portmanteau term which is used to describe a number of different legal principles with different juridical origins. As with other such expressions, the label tends to distract attention from the contents of the bottle.
The first principle is that once a cause of action has been held to exist or not to exist, that outcome may not be challenged by either party in subsequent proceedings. This is ’cause of action estoppel’. It is properly described as a form of estoppel precluding a party from challenging the same cause of action in subsequent proceedings.
Secondly, there is the principle, which is not easily described as a species of estoppel, that where the claimant succeeded in the first action and does not challenge the outcome, he may not bring a second action on the same cause of action, for example to recover further damages: see Conquer v. Boot [1928] 2 K.B. 336.
Third, there is the doctrine of merger, which treats a cause of action as extinguished once judgment has been given on it, and the claimant’s sole right as being a right on the judgment. Although this produces the same effect as the second principle, it is in reality a substantive rule about the legal effect of an English judgment, which is regarded as ‘of higher nature’ and therefore as superseding the underlying cause of action: see King v. Hoare (1844) 13 M and W 494, 504 (Parke B) . .
Fourth, there is the principle that even where the cause of action is not the same in the later action as it was in the earlier one, some issue which is necessarily common to both was decided on the earlier occasion and is binding on the parties: Duchess of Kingston’s Case (1776) 20 State Tr 355. ‘Issue estoppel’ was the expression devised to describe this principle by Higgins J in Hoysted v. Federal Commissioner of Taxation (1921) 29 CLR 537, 561 and adopted by Diplock LJ in Thoday v. Thoday [1964] P 181, 197-198.
Fifth, there is the principle first formulated by Wigram V-C in Henderson v. Henderson (1843) 3 Hare 100, 115, which precludes a party from raising in subsequent proceedings matters which were not, but could and should have been raised in the earlier ones.
Finally, there is the more general procedural rule against abusive proceedings, which may be regarded as the policy underlying all of the above principles with the possible exception of the doctrine of merger.’
Lord Sumption described the phrase ‘res judicata’ as ‘a portmanteau term which is used to describe a number of different legal principles with different juridical origins.’

Lord Neuberger, President, Lady Hale, Lord Clarke, Lord Sumption, Lord Carnwath
[2013] UKSC 46, [2013] 3 WLR 299, [2014] 1 AC 160, [2013] WLR(D) 265, [2013] RPC 29, [2013] 4 All ER 715, UKSC 2010/0013
Bailii, Bailii Summary, WLRD, SC Summary, SC
Patents Act 1977, European Convention on the Grant of Patents
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Coflexip Sacoflexip Stena Offshore Limited v Stolt Offshore Limitedstolt Offshore Limited Stolt Offshore A/S CA 13-Mar-2003
In proceedings already heard the defendant had been found liable for patent infringement, and damages remained to be assessed. They claimed for loss of profits and royalties, and for damages through dilution of the market. The claimants said that to . .
Cited – Unilin Beheer Bv v Berry Floor Nv and others CA 25-Apr-2007
The patent at issue was retrospectively amended by the EPO to limit its scope to valid claims, after the English court had given judgment in favour of the patentee. The ‘vexation’ associated with the pursuit of two proceedings challenging the . .
Cited – Glaxo Group Ltd v Genentech Inc and Another CA 31-Jan-2008
The validity of a patent was challenged at the same time in both UK and European courts. Mummery LJ discussed the inherent consequences of a race between the jurisdictions: ‘the possibility of the duplication of proceedings contesting the validity . .
Cited – The Duchess of Kingston’s Case 1-Apr-1776
On plea, sentence in ecclesiastical Court ex directo in a matter properly cognizable there, is conclusive evidence where the same matter comes into question collaterally in a court of law or equity.
A sentence of jactitation is not conclusive . .
Cited – King and Another v Hoare 25-Nov-1844
A judgment (without satisfaction) recovered against one of two joint debtors is a bar to an action against the other: – Secus where the debt is joint and several. – And it is pleadable in bar, and not in abatement. – Such a plea need not contain a . .
Cited – Hoysted v Federal Commissioner of Taxation 16-Dec-1921
High Court of Australia – Higgins J coined the term ‘issue estoppel’. . .
Cited – Conquer v Boot CA 1928
The householder recovered damages in the county court in an action against a builder for breach of a building contract to complete the works in a good and workmanlike manner. He then brought a second action upon the same contract. In the second . .
Cited – Henderson v Henderson 20-Jul-1843
Abuse of Process and Re-litigation
The court set down the principles to be applied in abuse of process cases, where a matter was raised again which should have been dealt with in earlier proceedings.
Sir James Wigram VC said: ‘In trying this question I believe I state the rule . .
Cited – Thoday v Thoday CA 1964
The court discussed the difference between issue estoppel, and action estoppel: ‘The particular type of estoppel relied upon by the husband is estoppel per rem judicatam. This is a generic term which in modern law includes two species. The first . .
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 . .
Cited – Arnold v National Westminster Bank Plc HL 1991
Tenants invited the court to construe the terms of a rent review provision in the sub-underlease under which they held premises. The provision had been construed in a sense adverse to them in earlier proceedings before Walton J, but they had been . .
Cited – Yat Tung Investment Co Ltd v Dao Heng Bank Ltd PC 1975
Restraint of Second Action as Abuse
Hong Kong – A company purchased a property from the defendant bank who had taken it back into possession from a former borrower. The company itself fell into arrears, the property was taken back again and resold. The company sought a declaration . .
Mistaken – Poulton v Adjustable Cover and Boiler Block Co CA 1908
The Plaintiff patent holder had obtained judgment, an injunction and damages against the Defendant for patent infringement despite a defence of invalidity based on prior art. The Defendant then acquired information about other instances of prior art . .
Mistaken – Coflexip S A and Another v Stolt Offshore Ms Ltd and others CA 27-Feb-2004
Proceedings had been brought by a third party in which the patent had been revoked. The Defendant in the first proceedings now sought release from an enquiry as to damages after being found, before the revocation, to have infringed the patent.
Cited – Unilin Beheer Bv v Berry Floor Nv and others CA 25-Apr-2007
The patent at issue was retrospectively amended by the EPO to limit its scope to valid claims, after the English court had given judgment in favour of the patentee. The ‘vexation’ associated with the pursuit of two proceedings challenging the . .
Cited – In re Waring, Westminster Bank v Burton-Butler ChD 1948
(i) an annuitant under a will was bound by a decision of the Court of Appeal in earlier litigation, where the will trustees and he were parties, as to the effect of tax legislation on his rights, but (ii) another annuitant was entitled to rely on a . .
Cited – Thrasyvoulou v Secretary of State for the Environment HL 1990
A building owner appealed against enforcement notices which alleged that there had been a material change of use of his buildings in 1982. This notice was issued by a planning authority. As a result of the appeal an inspector determined that the . .
Cited – Hindcastle Ltd v Barbara Attenborough Associates Ltd and Others HL 22-Feb-1996
The guarantor of an original tenant under the lease remains liable after the disclaimer the lease on insolvency. The disclaimer operates to determine the lease altogether with the result that the landlord’s reversion is accelerated. ‘In order to . .

Cited by:
Cited – Youngsam, Regina (on The Application of) v The Parole Board Admn 7-Apr-2017
The claimant challenged being recalled to prison from licence after being found in an area from which he was excluded as a condition of his parole. . .
Cited – Moorjani and Others v Durban Estates Ltd and Another TCC 15-May-2019
Allegations of breach of landlords’ repairing obligations – defendants’ strike out application.
Held: ‘ the critical question is whether this second action is based on the same cause, or causes, of action, and not whether it pleads the same . .
Cited – Spicer v The Commissioner of Police of The Metropolis QBD 6-Jul-2020
The claimant alleged defamation. He had been acquitted of a criminal offence and said that material published by the defendant continued to imply or assert his guilt of the offence. The defendant argued truth. The claimant now sought a strike out of . .
Cited – Takhar v Gracefield Developments Ltd and Others SC 20-Mar-2019
The claimant appellant alleged that properties she owned were transferred to the first defendant under undue influence or other unconscionable conduct by the second and third defendants. The claim was dismissed. Three years later she claimed to set . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Intellectual Property, Damages

Updated: 21 January 2022; Ref: scu.512119

John Court, Common Agent For The Creditors Of Lewis Cuthbert v Abraham Wildey Robarts, Esq: 25 Jul 1839

[1839] EngR 955, (1837,1839) 6 Cl and Fin 65, (1839) 7 ER 622
Commonlii
England and Wales

Damages

Updated: 21 January 2022; Ref: scu.311487

WH Newson Holding Ltd and Others v IMI Plc and Another: CA 27 Jul 2016

Gross, Hamblen LJJ, Sir Colin Rimer
[2016] EWCA Civ 773
Bailii
Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978 1(4)
England and Wales

Damages

Updated: 20 January 2022; Ref: scu.567678

Miller v Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust: QBD 14 Nov 2014

Assessment of damages in an action brought by the Claimant against the defendant NHS Trust for personal injuries caused by clinical negligence in their treatment of her.

Curran QC HHJ
[2014] EWHC 3772 (QB)
Bailii
England and Wales

Damages, Professional Negligence

Updated: 20 January 2022; Ref: scu.541560