Breach of Contract: What’s the damage?

Table of contents

• Report
• Background
• Decision
• Conclusions

Article summary

In an application for summary judgement dismissing a claim for damages for breach of contract, the court applied the Bwllfa principle (Bwllfa and Merthyr Dare Steam Colleries (1891) Limited v Pontypridd Water Works [1903] AC 426) and admitted evidence of what had happened between the event giving rise to the breach of contract and the trial when assessing the damages due. The case demonstrates the court’s ability to consider the effect of events that have taken place after the date of the breach in order to assess the innocent party’s loss. On the facts of the case, to have found otherwise would have been to award not damages to the Claimant (i.e. a compensatory payment to put him in the same position he would have been in but for the allegedly negligent advice), but a windfall benefit.