Damages & Other remedies Flashcards
(26 cards)
a man going to be married to an heiress, his horse having cast a shoe on the journey, employed a blacksmith to replace it, who did the work so unskilfully that the horse was lamed, and, the rider not arriving in time, the lady married another, and the blacksmith was held liable for the loss of the marriage.’
English case (no name)- remotness
- late delivery of an engine shaft for a mill in Gloucester
- Delivery was required by the contract to be performed within one day, but it actually took a week- no operation of mill for a week- led to loss of profit
- in Hadley held that the defendant could not be held liable for the lost profits
TEST:
- Damages that arise naturally from the breach of contract (i.e., according to the usual course of things) - objective part of the test
- Damages that may reasonably have been in the contemplation of both parties at the time of making the contract as a probable result of breach - subjective test
Hadley v. Baxendale (1854)
-plaintiff pig-farmers ordered a storage hopper for storing pig nuts
- negligently installed by the defendants and the nuts decayed
- 254 pigs perished as a result of intestinal disease contracted from eating the rotten nuts
-was enough for the plaintiff to establish that illness was the natural consequences of the defective feed being given to the animals
Parsons Ltd v. Uttley Ingham [1978] 1 All ER 525
book a summer holiday - referred specifically to the fact that her husband suffered from asthma, and that special health insurance was required due to her husband’s condition - booking form had a space for “special requests” but nothing entered
- hotel was full and the family was taken to an inferior hotel, where their room was in staff quarters and was filthy and dusty -asthma attack suffered
-ward of £400 for inconvenience and disappointment and asthma too remote
Kemp v. Intasun [1987] BTLC 353
- ship was leased and returned late
- charterers had contract to lease it to another entity
- Q: whether should repay only for the overrun period market difference or also for the decrease in the market price, thus for the lower price paid by the subsequent contractors
- only overrun period- other too remote
- added requirement to test: accepted liability/responsibility for the loss
Transfield Shipping Inc v. Mercator Shipping Inc, The Achilleas [2009] 1 AC 61
-US actor pulled out of a contract in order to be free to make a TV movie at the last minute
- He could not be replaced so the original film – a film of the play “The Man in the Wood” - had to be abandoned
- reliance loss
- The defendant contended that only the expenditure incurred after the contract was entered into could be recovered. Any expenditure incurred prior to that contract was voluntary on the part of Anglia and could certainly not be said to be in any way reliant on a contract which at that point did not exist.
- rejected by the Court of Appeal- plaintiff had a choice as to which head of loss they would claim
- The plaintiff was accordingly warded the amount it had invested in the production. Claiming loss of profits would have been particularly speculative given that the film was never made, but the result of this case assumes that the film would break even.
Anglia Television v. Reed [1972] 1 QB 60
- defendant contracted to provide trucks to transport logs to the plaintiff’s sawmill
- failed to provide a sufficient number of trucks, in breach of contract
- plaintiff would not have made a profit had sufficient trucks been available: the sawmill was an economically unviable operation which was losing money on each consignment of logs
- would have made an even greater loss had the defendant actually performed its obligations under the contract
- held that damages were not recoverable
- The plaintiff was awarded nominal damages of $250 for breach of contract.
Bowlay Logging v. Domtar (1978) 87
- plaintiff and the defendant were in a horse-racing partnership which broke up
- horse known as “Lonely Maid”
- Lonely Maid had been entered for three upcoming “classic” races
- plaintiff’s complaint was that he had bought the horse from the partnership with its engagements and that, a few days later (and without consulting him), the defendant had, in breach of the contract of sale, struck the horse out of all engagements in its name
- plaintiff argued that this meant that he had lost a “reasonable chance” of securing prize money in any of the three races, as well as the enhanced value that a good performance in any of those races would have given the horse
- On all the evidence, and having regard to the value of the stakes in the three races in question (and to the ability of the filly as proved by her subsequent performances), the Court assessed damages at £750 and gave judgment in that amount.
Hawkins v. Rodgers (1950) 85 ILTR 128
- plaintiff took a train from Wimbledon to Hampton Court
- train diverted from this scheduled route and went to Esher station instead - P had to walk 3 miles with children during rainy night
- The plaintiffs were awarded damages for the physical inconvenience of having to walk, but were refused damages for the element of annoyance involved
Hobbs v. London & SW Railway (1875) 10 QB 111
- plaintiff solicitor took a two-week skiing holiday in Switzerland based on a travel brochure
- holiday turned out to be a disaster
- At first instance, the plaintiff was awarded the difference in value between what he paid for and what he got. He appealed this, arguing that he was also entitled to damages to reflect the loss of enjoyment he had suffered.
- Lord Denning in the Court of Appeal considered that the decision in Hobbswas “out of date”. The court found that, in an appropriate case, damages for mental distress can be recovered in contract and an appropriate case might concern a contract for holidays or any other contracts where the purpose of the contract is to provide entertainment or enjoyment. The plaintiff ultimately obtained twice the value of the holiday in damages.
Jarvis v. Swan Tours [1973] 1 All ER 71
- Dublin woman’s wedding suffered so many set-backs that it “would rival a low-grade comedy film”
- hired David Kenny Studios to organise limousines and photography, a white Rolls-Royce never turned up to collect the bride and her husband-to-be thought he was “going to be left stranded at the altar”. The bride had to be driven 7 miles to the church in a friend’s white two-seater sports car, squashed between the driver and her father and holding up the hoops of her wedding gown to save it from being destroyed. The ceremony started 40 minutes late due to this and had to be rushed to facilitate two other couples who were (literally) queuing up to get married
- she could not look at the video or wedding albums and had vacated the court-room while the judge watched a video of the wedding
- psychiatric evidence in relation to the plaintiff’s suffering. He awarded the plaintiff €13,000 in damages
The Irish Times (2 May 1995) reported a Circuit Court - only newspaper report
- damages for distress were recoverable against a publican, in breach of contract, refused entry to his pub to the newlywed plaintiffs and their wedding guests
- On the evidence, both the plaintiffs suffered not only humiliation in front of their friends, but a great deal of personal distress that this particular day should be spoilt in such a shocking, uncaring and arbitrary manner
- entitled to significant damages against the defendants
Dinnegan v. Ryan [2002] 3 IR 178
- company had breached a binding contract arising out of a promotion they ran in 1988 whereby “free flights for life” were awarded to 1,000,000th passenger
- awarded damages for disappointment, frustration and upset arising out of the failure of the defendant to allocate her seats on the particular flight in question
O’Keeffe v. Ryanair Holdings plc [2003] 1 ILRM 14
- the clause in question was part of a resale price maintenance agreement for tyres and provided that the sale of any tyres at prices other than those agreed or to persons on a blacklist would create an obligation to pay £5
- whether the amount is out of all proportion to the possible consequences of the breach, and whether the amount is the same for each of a number of possible breaches of varying seriousness
- terminology used by the parties is not conclusive
sum of £5 was a genuine estimate of damages, notwithstanding that it applied to a number of different events
Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre v. New Garage & Motor Company [1915] AC 79
- O’Donnell v. Truck and Machinery Sales [1998] 4 IR 191 - approved Dunlop in Ireland
- damages clause would be upheld by the courts as having equal validity to any other contractual term because such a clause demonstrated that the parties contemplated and agreed upon their potential future losses
- Whether a damages clause was to be considered penal depended on its construction and on the surrounding circumstances at the time of contracting (not at the time of breach of contract)
Durkan New Homes v. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government [2014] 2 IR 440
- defendant retailer agreed not to sell cars below a listed price, not to sell F cars to other retailers and not to exhibit F cars without F’s consent
- In the event of breach of each condition he was to pay £250 as the “agreed damage which F will sustain”.
- held, notwithstanding the label put on it by the parties, to be a penalty clause
Ford Motor Company v. Armstrong (1915) 31 TLR 267
- UK Supreme Court reconsidered the law on penalties as stated in Dunlop holding that, even if a stipulated sum is not a genuine pre-estimate of loss, it is still not a penalty if it protects a legitimate interest of the claimant in the performance of the contract and is not out of all proportion in doing so
- “true test” as being: whether the impugned provision is a secondary obligation which imposes a detriment on the contract-breaker out of all proportion to any legitimate interest of the innocent party in the enforcement of the primary obligation.
- appellant, had parked in a car park attached to a retail site - “2 hour max stay”- 85 pounds - 56 minutes over
- the service had a legitimate interest in imposing a liability on Mr. - charging overstayers £85 was a legitimate part of their business model
ParkingEye Ltd. v. Beavis (Consumers’ Association intervening) [2015] 3 WLR 1373
-The 2017 agreement allowed the bank to charge an additional interest rate of 9% per annum on overdue amounts if client defaulted.
- penalty clause- 3 times normal interest rate
The Governor&Company of Bank of Ireland v O´Boyle (2025)
- plaintiffs were motor-dealers whose dealership agreements were wrongfully terminated by the defendant motor importer and distributor
- The plaintiffs were given the option of entering into new dealership agreements with the new importers of the cars in question, but for the most part refused. The terms of the new agreements would have been significantly different in a number of ways from their existing agreement, and not to their advantage.
- it was not reasonable to expect the plaintiff to enter into new disadvantageous agreements with the new importers, and accordingly their damages would not be reduced by reason of their failure to do so.
Lennon & Ors v. Talbot
- scarcity- suppliers of petrol under a contract were refusing to continue to supply
- on-going oil crisis which meant that the purchaser under the contract could not obtain supplied of petrol from alternative sources
- in danger of being forced out of business if he could not get petrol supplies from the seller here. Accordingly, damages were not an adequate remedy- so need for specific performance
Sky Petroleum v. VIP Petroleum [1974] 1 All ER 954
- a lease contained a term giving the tenant a right to have a resident porter “constantly in attendance” at a block of flats
- court refused specific performance of this term as it was an on-going obligation which would involve repeated and potentially unceasing applications to court if difficulties arose
Ryan v. Mutual Tontine Westminster Chambers Association [1893] 1 Ch 116
- landlord of a block of flats was under an obligation to employ a resident porter to keep the communal areas clean, collect rubbish from the flats and maintain the central heating and boilers
- landlord duly employed someone to perform these tasks, but he was not actually “resident”
- ordered the landlord to find a resident porter within 2 months, finding the obligation under the contract to be sufficiently clear and not requiring unacceptable levels of supervision by the court: if the landlord had not obeyed the order within two months, the tenants could simply initiate enforcement proceedings. - yes/no
Posner v. Scott-Lewis [1986] 3 All ER 513
- opera diva - one Mademoiselle - had contracted to sing at the plaintiff’s Her Majesty’s Theatre (and nowhere else without prior permission) for two nights a week for three months
- then offered a better rate by the manager of Covent Garden opera house and promptly broke her contract in order to be able to sing there instead
- court refused to decree specific performance of the contract, but it granted an injunction preventing her from singing elsewhere
- result of this injunction would be to create a strong incentive for the defendant to perform her obligations under the original contract
Lumley v. Wagner (1852) 1 De GM & G 604
- Y contracted to render her acting services exclusively for the benefit of X a period of several years.
- She subsequently agreed to act for a third party, in breach of that agreement
- However, the court granted an injunction preventing Bette Davis from acting for anyone else
- encouraged, rather than compelled, her to fulfil her obligations under the original contract
- This was not equivalent to granting specific performance: the court considered that she could still earn a living without breaching the injunction, despite the fact that the contract with X was for a period of several years.
Warner Bros Pictures inc v. Nelson [1937] 1 KB 209
