A woman who was wrongly deprived of the chance of being one of the winners in a beauty competition was awarded damages for loss of a chance. The court did not attempt to decide on balance of probability the hypothetical past event of what would have happened if the claimant had been duly notified of her interview. A contract to provide a chance can be enforced, and damages can be given for a failure to fulfil that contract if the chance has some real value. Vaughan Williams LJ said that whilst ‘the presence of all the contingencies on which the gaining of the prize might depend makes the calculation not only difficult but incapable of being carried out with certainty or precision’ damages for the lost opportunity are assessable.

Vaughan Williams LJ
(1911) 27 TLR 244, [1911] 2 KB 786, [1911-13] All ER 224, 80 LJKB 1292
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co CA 7-Dec-1892
Unilateral Contract Liability
The defendants advertised ‘The Carbolic Smoke Ball,’ in the Pall Mall Gazette, saying ‘pounds 100 reward will be paid by the Carbolic Smoke Ball Company to any person who contracts the increasing epidemic influenza, colds, or any disease caused by . .

Cited by:
Cited – Coudert Brothers v Normans Bay Limited (Formerly Illingworth, Morris Limited) CA 27-Feb-2004
The respondent had lost its investment in a Russian development, and the appellants challenged a finding that they had been negligent in their advice with regard to the offer documents.
Held: As to the basis of calculation of damages as to a . .
Cited – Gregg v Scott HL 27-Jan-2005
The patient saw his doctor and complained about a lump under his arm. The doctor failed to diagnose cancer. It was nine months before treatment was begun. The claimant sought damages for the reduction in his prospects of disease-free survival for . .
Cited – Barker v Corus (UK) Plc HL 3-May-2006
The claimants sought damages after contracting meselothemia working for the defendants. The defendants argued that the claimants had possibly contracted the disease at any one or more different places. The Fairchild case set up an exception to the . .
Cited – Nestle v National Westminster Bank CA 6-May-1992
The claimant said that the defendant bank as trustee of her late father’s estate had been negligent in its investment of trust assets.
Held: The claimant had failed to establish either a breach of trust or any loss flowing from it, though . .
Cited – Les Laboratoires Servier and Another v Apotex Inc and others ChD 9-Oct-2008
The claimant had alleged that the defendant was producing generic drugs which infringed its rights in a new drug. The patentee had given a cross-undertaking in damages, but the patent was later ruled invalid. The court had to assess the damages to . .
Cited – Parabola Investments Ltd and Others v Browallia Cal Ltd and Others CA 5-May-2010
The second defendant appealed against the level of damages awarded against him after he was found guilty of a fraud on the claimant, saying that the loss of profits element was unproven.
Held: The appeal failed. Where a claimant’s investment . .
Cited – Pickett v British Rail Engineering HL 2-Nov-1978
Lost Earnings claim Continues after Death
The claimant, suffering from mesothelioma, had claimed against his employers and won, but his claim for loss of earnings consequent upon his anticipated premature death was not allowed. He began an appeal, but then died. His personal representatives . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Damages

Updated: 30 November 2021; Ref: scu.183113

Dispute about the meaning of a contract in the exhibition business which the parties have complicated by claims of implied term, collateral contract, rectification, estoppel, waiver, misrepresentation and quantum meruit. The Claimant provided management services to a business which the Defendant sold. The Claimant says that this was a breach of contract and claims damages.

MacKie QC J
[2014] EWHC 148 (Comm)
Bailii
England and Wales

Contract, Damages

Updated: 29 November 2021; Ref: scu.521086

Appeals against a judgment (following an earlier judgment by which judgment was given in favour of Jet2.com Ltd for damages for breach of contract. The essential issue is as to the assumptions, if any, that ought to be made for the purposes of assessing Jet2’s damages in respect of Tarom’s repudiation of the relevant contract.

[2014] EWCA Civ 87
Bailii
England and Wales

Damages, Contract

Updated: 29 November 2021; Ref: scu.521050

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 railway company obtained benefits over and above their contractual entitlement. The arbitrator stated a special case as to whether the plaintiffs were bound to give credit against the claim for the cost of the Parsons machines for the savings due to their superior efficiency over what the defendants had contracted to supply.
Held: They did. Additional benefits obtained as a result of taking reasonable steps to mitigate loss were to be brought into account in the calculation of damages. It was necessary to balance loss against gain when the amount of the damages was being calculated. The House distinguished cases in which the plaintiff had received benefits which ‘did not arise out of the transactions the subject-matter of the contract.’ These were res inter alios acta. But where ‘the person whose contract was broken took a reasonable and prudent course quite naturally arising out of the circumstances in which he was placed by the breach’ it was necessary to look at any additional benefits which he thereby acquired and to ‘balance loss and gain.’
Viscount Haldane LC said: ‘i) The fundamental basis of damages is compensation for the pecuniary loss to a party naturally flowing from the breach.
ii) This principle is qualified by the duty of a plaintiff to take all reasonable steps to mitigate the loss consequent on the breach.
iii) Where in the course of business a party has taken action arising out of the transaction which has mitigated his loss, the effect in actual diminution of the loss he has suffered may be taken into account even if he had no duty to act.
iv) Where the subsequent arrangement was not between those parties, but between a claimant and a third party, the court should look at what actually happened and balance loss and gain.’
and ‘The quantum of damage is a question of fact, and the only guidance the law can give is to lay down general principles which afford at times but scanty assistance in dealing with particular cases . . Subject to these observations I think that there are certain broad principles which are quite well settled. The first is that, as far as possible, he who has proved a breach of a bargain to supply what he contracted to get is to be placed, as far as money can do it, in as good a situation as if the contract had been performed. The fundamental basis is thus compensation for pecuniary loss naturally flowing from the breach; but this first principle is qualified by a second, which imposes on a plaintiff the duty of taking all reasonable steps to mitigate the loss consequent on the breach . .’
Having referred to Staniforth v Lyall he continued: ‘I think that this decision illustrates a principle which has been recognized in other cases, that, provided the course taken to protect himself by the plaintiff in such an action was one which a reasonable and prudent person might in the ordinary conduct of business properly have taken, and in fact did take whether bound to or not, a jury or an arbitrator may properly look at the whole of the facts and ascertain the result in estimating the quantum of damage.
Recent illustrations of the way in which this principle has been applied, and the facts have been allowed to speak for themselves, are to be found in the decisions of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in Erie County Natural Gas and Fuel Co. v. Carroll [1911] AC 105 and Wertheim v. Chicoutimi Pulp Co. [1911] AC 301. The subsequent transaction, if to be taken into account, must be one arising out of the consequences of the breach and in the ordinary course of business. This distinguishes such cases from a quite different class illustrated by Bradburn v Great Western Ry. Co. (1874) LR 10 Ex 1, where it was held that, in an action for injuries caused by the defendants’ negligence, a sum received by the plaintiff on a policy for insurance against accident could not be taken into account in reduction of damages. The reason of the decision was that it was not the accident, but a contract wholly independent of the relation between the plaintiff and the defendant, which gave the plaintiff his advantage. Again, it has been held that, in an action for delay in discharging a ship of the plaintiffs’ whereby they lost their passengers whom they had contracted to carry, the damages ought not to be reduced by reason of the same persons taking passage on another vessel belonging to the plaintiffs: Jebsen v East and West India Dock Co. (1874) LR 10 CP 300, a case in which what was relied on as mitigation did not arise out of the transactions the subject-matter of the contract . . I think the principle which applies here is that which makes it right for the jury or arbitrator to look at what actually happened, and to balance loss and gain. The transaction was not res inter alios acta but one in which the person whose contract was broken took a reasonable and prudent course quite naturally arising out of the circumstances in which he was placed by the breach.’

Viscount Haldane LC, Lords Ashbourne, Macnaghten, and Atkinson
[1912] AC 673, [1911-13] All ER Rep 63, 81 LJKB 1132, [1912] UKHL 617
Bailii
England and Wales
Citing:
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 . .
Cited – Staniforth v Lyall And Others 27-Nov-1830
Defendants chartered a ship to New Zealand, where they were to load her, or by an agent there to give Plaintiff, the owner, notice that they abandoned the adventure; in which case they were to pay him 5001. The ship went to New Zealand, but found . .
Cited – Wertheim v The Chicoutimi Pulp Company PC 18-Mar-1910
(Quebec) The buyer sought damages for late delivery of goods calculated on the difference between the market price at the place of delivery when the goods should have been delivered and the market price there when the goods were in fact delivered. . .
Cited – The Erie County Natural Gas and Fuel Company Limited and Others v Samuel S Carroll and Another PC 14-Dec-1910
(Ontario) The defendant was found to have breached its obligations to supply natural gas to the plaintiff. The plaintiff spent money on works to procure its own supply, and subsequently sold those works at a profit.
Held: Their Lordships . .
Cited – Jebsen v East and West India Dock Co CCP 25-Feb-1875
Delay caused by a charterer in discharging cargo caused the shipowner to lose passengers whom he had contracted to carry but he was able to take the same passengers in another of his vessels.
Held: The shipowners’ damages were not to be . .

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.
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 – 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 – 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 . .
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 – Omak Maritime Ltd v Mamola Challenger Shipping Co Ltd ComC 4-Aug-2010
Lost Expenses as Damages for Contract Breach
The court was asked as to the basis in law of the principle allowing a contracting party to claim, as damages for breach, expenditure which has been wasted as a result of a breach. The charterer had been in breach of the contract but the owner had . .
Cited – Sotiros Shipping Inc v Sameiet; The Solholt CA 1983
The seller had failed to deliver the vessel he had sold by the delivery date. The buyer cancelled and requested return of his deposit, also claiming damages because the vessel was worth $500,000 more on the delivery date than she had been when the . .
Cited – Borealis Ab v Geogas Trading Sa ComC 9-Nov-2010
The parties had contracted for sale and purchase of butane for processing. It was said to have been contaminated. The parties now disputed the effect on damages for breach including on causation, remoteness, mitigation and quantum.
Held: The . .
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 – Gardner v Marsh and Parsons (a Firm), Dyson CA 2-Dec-1996
Damages awarded against a surveyor for a negligent survey which had missed certain defects, were not to be reduced for repairs later carried out by the landlord at his own expense. The trial judge decided to award damages reflecting the difference . .
Cited – Bacciottini and Another v Gotelee and Goldsmith (A Firm) CA 18-Mar-2016
A property subject to a planning condition was purchased by the appellant under the advice of the respondent, who failed to notify him of the existence of a planning condition. The judge had awarded the claimant pounds 250 being the cost of the . .
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 . .
Cited – Morris-Garner and Another v One Step (Support) Ltd SC 18-Apr-2018
The Court was asked in what circumstances can damages for breach of contract be assessed by reference to the sum that the claimant could hypothetically have received in return for releasing the defendant from the obligation which he failed to . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Contract

Updated: 28 November 2021; Ref: scu.181348

When a contract is to be construed purposively, the court must look to the purposes of both parties, not just one of them. No apportionment was to be applied under the 1945 Act: ‘Similarly, we think that the facts and circumstances of the present case are such that it can and should be easily distinguished from those in [the Tennant case]. We merely add respectfully our view that the scope and extent of this last mentioned case would have to be a matter of substantial argument if the principle there applied were to arise for consideration in another case.’

May, Ralph Gibson and Bingham LJJ
[1990] 1 QB 818
Law Reform (Contributory Negligence) Act 1945
England and Wales
Citing:
Doubted – Tennant Radiant Heat Ltd v Warrington Development Corporation 1988
A property comprised a large building let on fully repairing leases of 22 units. The many rain outlets were allowed to become blocked, and water accumulated above one unit before that part of the roof collapsed. The landlord appealed a finding that . .

Cited by:
Cited – Spring House (Freehold) Ltd v Mount Cook Land Ltd CA 12-Dec-2001
A lease provided against the tenant leaving his goods outside the premises, and the landlords objected to motor vehicles being parked there.
Held: The words had to be interpreted in the light of the intentions of the parties at the time. Motor . .
Appeal from – Bank of Nova Scotia v Hellenic Mutual War Risks Association (Bermuda) Ltd (The Good Luck) HL 1992
The effect of breach of an insurance warranty is automatic, rather than dependant on any acceptance or election.
Lord Goff of Chieveley said: ‘So it is laid down in section 33(3) that, subject to any express provision in the policy, the insurer . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Damages

Updated: 23 November 2021; Ref: scu.184139

The issue was whether a mortgagee had sold at an undervalue, and if so what the damages should be.
Held: In a well-developed property market where a sale is assured and the only possible issue is as to the market level, damages for loss of chance are relatively easily calculated. The fact that the sale price may be the same as the valuer’s estimate of the market value of the property will not protect the mortgagee if in fact the market value is higher. If the creditor breaches his duty under the principal loan agreement, a surety is released from his liability under the guarantee to the extent that the value of the securities has been impaired as a result of the breach.
Evans LJ said: ‘The evidence enabled the judge to assess what the market value was, and that figure would correspond with the price that could be expected to be achieved, given exposure to the market for a reasonable time. The question, what the figure was, was an issue of historic fact which had to be established on the evidence . . ‘

Evans LJ, Potter LJ and Alliott J
[2001] QB 261, [2001] ANZ Conv R 220, [2000] 2 All ER 779, [2000] 1 All ER (Comm) 257, [2000] 3 WLR 1031
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Equitable Life Assurance Society v Ernst and Young CA 25-Jul-2003
The claimant sought damages from its accountants, saying that had they been advised of the difficulties in their financial situation, they would have been able to avoid the loss of some 2.5 billion pounds, or to sell their assets at a time when . .
Cited – Roger Michael and others v Douglas Henry Miller and Another ChD 22-Mar-2004
Property had been sold by the respondents as mortgagees in possession. The claimants said the judge had failed to award the value of the property as found to be valued, and had not given a proper value to a crop of lavender.
Held: In . .
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 . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Contract

Updated: 19 November 2021; Ref: scu.184851

The plaintiffs claimed for loss of the profits from their laundry business because of late delivery of a boiler.
Held: The Court did not regard ‘loss of profits from the laundry business’ as a single type of loss. They distinguished losses from ‘particularly lucrative dyeing contracts’ as a different type of loss which would only be recoverable if the defendant had sufficient knowledge of them to make it reasonable to attribute to him acceptance of liability for such losses. The vendor of the boilers would have regarded the profits on these contracts as a different and higher form of risk than the general risk of loss of profits by the laundry. The court distinguished the approach to be taken in claims for damages under contract and tort. In cases of breach of contract the aggrieved can only recover such loss actually resulting as was at the time of the contract reasonably foreseeable as likely to result from the breach. In tort, the question whether loss was reasonably foreseeable is addressed to the time when the tort was committed. In contract, the question is addressed to the time when the parties made their contract. Where knowledge of special circumstances is relied on, the assumption is that the defendant undertook to bear any special loss which was referable to those special circumstances. It is assumed too that he had the opportunity to seek to limit his liability under the contract for ordinary losses in the event that he was in breach of it.
Asquith LJ said: ‘1: It is well settled that the governing purpose of damages is to put the party whose rights have been violated in the same position, so far as money can do so, as if his rights had been observed: (Sally Wertheim v..Chicoutimi Pulp Company [1911] AC 301. This purpose, if relentlessly pursued, would provide him with a complete indemnity for loss de facto resulting from a particular breach, however improbable, however unpredictable. This, in contract at least, is recognised as too harsh a rule : hence,
2: In cases of breach of contract the aggrieved party is only entitled to recover such part of the loss actually resulting as was at the time of the contract reasonably foreseeable as liable to result from the breach,
3: What was at that time reasonably so foreseeable depends on the knowledge then possessed by the parties or, at all events, by the party who later commits the breach.’ and
‘But to this knowledge, which a contract breaker is assumed to possess whether he actually possesses it or not [under the first rule] there may have to be added in a particular case knowledge which he actually possesses of special circumstances outside the ‘ordinary course of things’ of such a kind that a breach in those special circumstances would be liable to cause more loss. Such a case attracts the operation of the ‘second rule’ so as to make additional loss recoverable’.

Asquith LJ
[1949] 2 KB 528
England and Wales
Citing:
Restated – Hadley v Baxendale Exc 23-Feb-1854
Contract Damages; What follows the Breach Naturaly
The plaintiffs had sent a part of their milling machinery for repair. The defendants contracted to carry it, but delayed in breach of contract. The plaintiffs claimed damages for the earnings lost through the delay. The defendants appealed, saying . .
Cited – Wertheim v The Chicoutimi Pulp Company PC 18-Mar-1910
(Quebec) The buyer sought damages for late delivery of goods calculated on the difference between the market price at the place of delivery when the goods should have been delivered and the market price there when the goods were in fact delivered. . .

Cited by:
Cited – Watford Electronics Ltd v Sanderson CFL Ltd CA 23-Feb-2001
The plaintiff had contracted to purchase software from the respondent. The system failed to perform, and the defendant sought to rely upon its exclusion and limitation of liability clauses.
Held: It is for the party claiming that a contract . .
Cited – Jackson and Another v Royal Bank of Scotland HL 27-Jan-2005
The claimants sought damages, alleging that a breach of contract by the defendant had resulted in their being unable to earn further profits elsewhere. The defendant said the damages claimed were too remote. The bank had, by error, disclosed to one . .
Cited – Pegler Ltd v Wang (UK) Ltd TCC 25-Feb-2000
Standard Conract – Wide Exclusions, Apply 1977 Act
The claimant had acquired a computer system from the defendant, which had failed. It was admitted that the contract had been broken, and the court set out to decide the issue of damages.
Held: Even though Wang had been ready to amend one or . .
Cited – Pegler Ltd v Wang (UK) Ltd TCC 25-Feb-2000
Standard Conract – Wide Exclusions, Apply 1977 Act
The claimant had acquired a computer system from the defendant, which had failed. It was admitted that the contract had been broken, and the court set out to decide the issue of damages.
Held: Even though Wang had been ready to amend one or . .
Cited – Wiseman v Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd QBD 29-Jun-2006
The claimant said that he was refused permission to board a flight by the defendants representative without paying a bribe, and was publicly humiliated for not doing so.
Held: Whilst the claimant could recover for his own additional expenses, . .
Cited – The ‘Pegase’ 1981
The court considered the measure of damages for breach of contract in the light of the cases in the Heron II and Victoria Laundry: ‘the principle in Hadley v Baxendale is now no longer stated in terms of two rules, but rather in terms of a single . .
Cited – Transfield Shipping Inc of Panama v Mercator Shipping Inc of Monrovia ComC 1-Dec-2006
The owners made substantial losses after the charterers breached the contract by failing to redliver the ship on time as agreed.
Held: On the facts found the Owners’ primary claim is not too remote. To the knowledge of the Charterers, it was . .
Cited – Transfield Shipping Inc v Mercator Shipping Inc (The Achilleas) HL 9-Jul-2008
The parties contracted to charter the Achileas. The charterer gave notice to terminate the hire, and the owner found a new charterer. Until the termination the charterers sub-chartered. That charter was not completed, delaying the ship for the . .
Cited – Joyce v Bowman Law Ltd ChD 18-Feb-2010
The claimant asserted negligence by the defendant licensed conveyancers in not warning him of the effect of an option in the contract. He had been advised that it would allow him to choose to buy additional land, but it was in fact a put option. The . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Damages, Contract

Updated: 17 November 2021; Ref: scu.187201

Lost Expenses as Damages for Contract Breach

The court was asked as to the basis in law of the principle allowing a contracting party to claim, as damages for breach, expenditure which has been wasted as a result of a breach. The charterer had been in breach of the contract but the owner had been able to re-hire the vehicle at a higher rate. The owner sought payment of his costs.
Held: The appeal succeeded. Reliance losses are a species of expectation losses and that they are neither ‘fundamentally different’ nor awarded on a different ‘juridical basis of claim’, and ‘the expectation loss analysis does provide a rational and sensible explanation for the award of damages in wasted expenditure cases. The expenditure which is sought to be recovered is incurred in expectation that that the contract will be performed. It therefore appears to me to be rational to have regard to the position that the claimant would have been in had the contract been performed.’ The tribunal erred in regarding a claim for wasted expenses and a claim for loss of profits as independent claims not to be ‘mixed’. However, both claims are governed by the fundamental principle in Robinson v Harman, requiring the court to compare the claimant’s position and what it would have been had the contract been performed: ‘Where steps have been taken to mitigate the loss which would otherwise have been caused by a breach of contract that principle requires the benefits obtained by mitigation to be set against the loss which would otherwise have been sustained. To fail to do so would put the claimant in a better position than he would have been in had the contract been performed.’

Teare J
[2010] WLR (D) 230, [2010] EWHC 2026 (Comm)
Bailii, WLRD
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Wertheim v The Chicoutimi Pulp Company PC 18-Mar-1910
(Quebec) The buyer sought damages for late delivery of goods calculated on the difference between the market price at the place of delivery when the goods should have been delivered and the market price there when the goods were in fact delivered. . .
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 – L Albert and Son v Armstrong Rubber Co 1949
(United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit) A purchaser of machines designed to recondition rubber sought damages for breach of contract, namely, the cost of the foundation on which the machines were placed. However, the purchaser did not prove . .
Cited – Anglia Television v Oliver Reed CA 1971
The television company had agreed with the actor defendant for him to appear in a production. He breached the contract. The company sought both loss of profits and for the expense incurred. The issue before the Court of Appeal was whether such . .
Cited – Cullinane v British ‘Rema’ Manufacturing Co Ltd CA 1954
The court considered the possibility of a claim in breach of contract for damages for both capital loss and loss of profit.
Lord Evershed MR said: ‘It seems to me, as a matter of principle, that the full claim of damages in the form in which . .
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 – C and P Haulage v Middleton CA 27-Jun-1983
The parties entered into an agreement allowing the defendant to occupy the plaintiff’s land. They had disputed whether it was a licence or a lease. The occupier had expended sums on improving the premises, but had then been summarily ejected. He now . .
Cited – Bowlay Logging Limited v Domtar Limited 1978
(Canada) The parties contracted for the claimant to cut timber and the defendant to haul it. The plaintiff said that the defendant breached the contract by supplying insufficient trucks to haul the timber away, and claimed as damages his wasted . .
Cited – Lloyd v Stanbury 1971
A purchaser who had been let into possession before completion and had spent money on improvements to the property was not entitled to claim for such expenses because they would not usually have been within the contemplation of the parties. As to . .
Cited – Commonwealth of Australia v Amann Aviation Pty Ltd 12-Dec-1991
(High Court of Australia) In a claim for damages for breach of contract, wasted expenditure was claimed and there was a complex dispute as to what the consequences of performing the contract would have been.
Held: The law should not, when . .
Cited – CCC Films (London) Ltd v Impact Quadrant Films Ltd 1984
The claimants purchased a licence to promote three films, but the defendant lost the film prints and CCC could not therefore promote them. After their claim for loss of profit failed in the absence of evidence, they claimed for the expenditure they . .
Cited – Wallington v Townsend ChD 1939
The parties exchanged contracts for the sale and purchase of land, but the contract had attached an incorrect plan, including a strip of land now disputed. Neither party had properly attended to what they were signing. The plaintiff buyer maintained . .
Cited – Surrey County Council v Bredero Homes Ltd CA 7-Apr-1993
A local authority had sold surplus land to a developer and obtained a covenant that the developer would develop the land in accordance with an existing planning permission. The sole purpose of the local authority in imposing the covenant was to . .
Cited – Filobake Ltd v Rondo Ltd and Another CA 11-May-2005
Unsuitability of baking equipment installation. A claimant in a breach of contract claim has a choice whether to claim loss of profits or wasted expenditure. . .

Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Contract, Damages

Updated: 11 November 2021; Ref: scu.421533