The parties contracted for the sale of a ship, including a spare propeller. When the ship was delivered there was no spare propeller. It was common ground that there was no market for secondhand propellers. So the only way of providing a spare propeller would have been to commission the manufacture of a new propeller at great expense. The arbitrator had held that this would be unreasonable. Instead, he awarded the scrap value of the propeller, since that was all the buyer had actually lost by reason of the seller’s breach.
Held: The arbitrator’s decision was upheld
Neill LJ said: ‘I can only read his award as meaning that he asked the question: what did these buyers really suffer as a result of the non-delivery of this spare propeller with this vessel? And he gave the answer: they lost its scrap value which in the circumstances was the only value which it had for them.’
Judges:
Neill LJ
Citations:
[1991] 1 Lloyd’s Rep 120
Cited by:
Cited – Ruxley Electronics and Construction Ltd v Forsyth HL 29-Jun-1995
Damages on Construction not as Agreed
The appellant had contracted to build a swimming pool for the respondent, but, after agreeing to alter the specification to construct it to a certain depth, in fact built it to the original lesser depth, Damages had been awarded to the house owner . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Contract, Damages
Updated: 04 May 2022; Ref: scu.526104
