Essential Cases: Contract Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Watts & another v Morrow [1991] 1 WLR 1421. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Nicola Jackson.
Chapter
Watts & another v Morrow [1991] 1 WLR 1421
Chapter
Watts & another v Morrow [1991] 1 WLR 1421
Essential Cases: Contract Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Watts & another v Morrow [1991] 1 WLR 1421. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Nicola Jackson.
Chapter
13. Default Judgment
Judgment in default may be entered where the defendant fails to defend a claim. It produces a judgment in favour of a claimant without holding a trial. This chapter discusses when default judgment may be entered; cases excluded from judgment in default; entering default judgment; final judgment and judgment for an amount to be decided; deciding the amount of damages; setting aside default judgments; and stay of undefended cases.
Chapter
18. Remedies and Appeals
This chapter discusses the remedies that can be sought from the civil courts and how an appeal is made against a decision. It covers interim and final remedies; route of appeals; leave; the hearing; appeals to the Supreme Court; and examples of appeals. There are many different types of remedies that a court can award to a successful litigant. The most common form of remedy is that which is known as ‘damages’. Appeals in the civil courts follow a slightly more complicated structure than in criminal cases. In order to appeal in the civil cases, it is usually necessary to seek permission before proceeding with a civil appeal. Save where it is a final decision in a multi-track case, the usual rule is that the appeal will be heard by the next most senior judge.
Chapter
13. Default Judgment
Judgment in default may be entered where the defendant fails to defend a claim. It produces a judgment in favour of a claimant without holding a trial. This chapter discusses when default judgment may be entered; cases excluded from judgment in default; entering default judgment; final judgment and judgment for an amount to be decided; deciding the amount of damages; setting aside default judgments; and stay of undefended cases.
Chapter
21. Remedies for Breach of Contract
M P Furmston
This chapter discusses remedies for breach of contract. It covers damages (remoteness of damage and measure of damages; mitigation; contributory negligence; liquidated damages and penalties; and deposits, part payments, and forfeitures), specific performance (specific performance a discretionary remedy; the principle of mutuality; and the remedy of injunction), and extinction of remedies (the statutory time limits; effect of defendant’s fraud; extension of time in case of disability; effect of acknowledgement or part payment; and effect of lapse of time on equitable claims).
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16. Misrepresentation
This chapter discusses misrepresentation in contract law. Misrepresentation is a statement of fact or law which is false, that induces a party to enter into the contract. A misrepresentation may be made by words or by conduct. All misrepresentations entitle the misrepresentee to rescind the contract. However, rescission will be barred where it is impossible to put the parties back into their original position; or where the misrepresentee has affirmed the contract; or where a long period of time has elapsed; or where a third party who has acquired rights for value in good faith would be disadvantaged by rescission. Damages are available at common law for the tort of deceit or for negligent misrepresentation. Most claims for damages are now made under section 2(1) of the Misrepresentation Act 1967.
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18. Remedies and Appeals
Alisdair A. Gillespie and Siobhan Weare
This chapter discusses the remedies that can be sought from the civil courts and how an appeal is made against a decision. It covers interim and final remedies; route of appeals; leave; the hearing; appeals to the Supreme Court; and examples of appeals. There are many different types of remedies that a court can award to a successful litigant. The most common form of remedy is that which is known as ‘damages’. Appeals in the civil courts follow a slightly more complicated structure than in criminal cases. In order to appeal in the civil cases it is usually necessary to seek permission before proceeding with a civil appeal. Save where it is a final decision in a multi-track case, the usual rule is that the appeal will be heard by the next most senior judge.
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8. Contributory Negligence
Celebrated for their conceptual clarity, titles in the Clarendon Law Series offer concise, accessible overviews of major fields of law and legal thought. This chapter discusses the law on contributory negligence. In England, contributory negligence denotes only the negligence of the claimant himself, not that of a third party whose negligence contributes to the occurrence of the harm. Under the Contributory Negligence Act 1945, the claimant's damages are reduced to such extent as the court thinks just and equitable having regard to the claimant's share in the responsibility for the damage. The chapter also deals with contributory negligence as a defence that the defendant must plead and prove. It considers two defences. The first is that the claimant consented to the harmful conduct or accepted the risk of ensuing damage; the second that the claim arose out of illicit conduct on the part of the claimant.
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14. Damages
Celebrated for their conceptual clarity, titles in the Clarendon Law Series offer concise, accessible overviews of major fields of law and legal thought. This chapter focuses on damages. Most victims of torts want money, often, as much as they can. However, a claimant may also be awarded damages when what he really wants is an injunction to put an end to a continuing wrong: here the damages are not compensatory at all, but just a sop, and not one which the complainant would regard as ‘just satisfaction’. The chapter discusses damages for economic harm and human harm, payment of damages, fatal accident claims, property damage, aggravated damages, and punitive damages.
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Farley v Skinner [2001] UKHL 49
Essential Cases: Contract Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Farley v Skinner [2001] UKHL 49. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Nicola Jackson.
Chapter
Farley v Skinner [2001] UKHL 49
Essential Cases: Contract Law provides a bridge between course textbooks and key case judgments. This case document summarizes the facts and decision in Farley v Skinner [2001] UKHL 49. The document also includes supporting commentary from author Nicola Jackson.
Chapter
10. Remedies Part II: Principles That Can Limit the Damages Awarded Following a Breach
This chapter studies the principles that can limit the damages awarded following a breach of contract. It starts with the principle of causation. The idea here is that the breach must have caused the loss. A related issue is the limited application of contributory negligence. Where relevant, damages can be reduced to reflect any fault on the part of the innocent claimant. Both of these factors are of fairly minor importance. The main limiting factor is the principle of remoteness. It is a principle that limits liability to the risks the party in breach appeared to accept. Finally, the chapter looks at the duty to mitigate losses. This requires the innocent party to take reasonable steps to reduce (and not unreasonably increase) the loss suffered after a breach. Depending on the facts, disputes can involve any or all of these limitations.
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18. Equitable remedies
Titles in the Complete series combine extracts from a wide range of primary materials with clear explanatory text to provide readers with a complete introductory resource. This chapter on equitable remedies discusses that the courts’ powers to grant equitable remedies are discretionary and that equitable remedies vary from case to case. It also looks at the difference between the principles governing the grant of general and specific injunctions and the principles governing the grant and refusal of specific performance. It also mentions that all equitable remedies are in personam and can be granted in respect of property outside the jurisdiction of the court.
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2. Some Advice for the Novice Tort Lawyer
This chapter discusses issues that readers must bear in mind when encountering criticism of individual rules, decisions, and academic opinions in the remainder of the book. These are: how judicial mentality and outlook affects decision-making; academic interests and practitioners’ concerns; ivory tower neatness v. the untidiness of the real world; tort’s struggle to solve modern problems with old tools; need to reform tort law; whether liability rules are restricted because the damages rules have been left unreformed or because the relationship between liability and damages has been neglected; that tort law is, in practice, often inaccessible to the ordinary victim; and that human rights law is set to influence tort law, but this influence is likely to be gradual and indirect.
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25. Other Remedies and Multiple Liabilities
This chapter discusses continues from the preliminary discussion of remedies in chapter 24, to discuss the following: injunctions, damages in lieu of an injunction, and joint and concurrent liability. An action for damages lies after a tort has been committed. An injunction is sought to prevent the continuance of a tort or in anticipation of a threatened tort. It is an order commanding the discontinuance of some activity or forbidding the causing of damage. Where a court could issue an injunction, but decides against doing so, it may award damages in lieu. This power was originally conferred by section 2 of the Chancery Amendment Act 1858 (Lord Cairns’ Act) and has been continued by later legislation. The chapter discusses when it might be appropriate for a court to make an award of damages in lieu of an injunction, particularly in light of recent case law in the context of the law of nuisance. The issue of joint and concurrent liability is also of interest, and should be understood against the back-drop of the discussion about causation in chapter five.
Book
Kirsty Horsey and Erika Rackley
Kidner’s Casebook on Torts provides a comprehensive, portable library of the leading cases in the field. It presents a wide range of carefully edited extracts, which illustrate the essence and reasoning behind each decision made. Concise author commentary focuses the reader on the key elements within the extracts. Statutory materials are also included where they are necessary to understand the subject. The book examines the tort of negligence including chapters on the basic principles of duty of care, omissions and acts of third parties, the liability of public bodies, psychiatric harm, economic loss, breach of duty, causation and remoteness of damage and defences. It goes on to consider three special liability regimes—occupiers’ liability, product liability and breach of statutory duty—before turning to discussion of the personal torts and land torts. It concludes with chapters on vicarious liability and damages.
Chapter
14. Duress
This chapter discusses duress, a word associated with a threat that forces someone to do something. It is not difficult to imagine this in a context of contracts. The typical hypothetical example would be a party that signs a contract at gunpoint. Entering a contract under duress in this fashion means that the consent to the contract was impaired by the wrongdoing. This means that duress is another vitiating factor, like misrepresentation, and therefore it results in the contract being voidable. The chapter examines the law relating to contracts made as a result of duress. It starts with the role of the law and the shape of the area, which provides a brief overview of the development of the duress principle. The chapter then turns to the initial categories of duress, and with each it explores the principles arising from the case law and the scope of the duress principle in those contexts. Of these categories, economic duress and lawful act duress are the most recent to have evolved, and they are particularly interesting because they continue to be the subject of judicial and academic debate. The chapter’s final issue concerns the remedies for duress, and a key issue here is the question of whether duress can result in a claim for damages.
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18. Specific Remedies
Jack Beatson, Andrew Burrows, and John Cartwright
This Chapter considers specific remedies for breach of contract. Under certain circumstances, a contractual promise may be enforced directly. This may be by an action for the agreed sum, by an order for specific performance of the obligation, or by an injunction to restrain the breach of a negative stipulation in a contract or to require the defendant to take positive steps to undo a breach of contract. These remedies have different historical roots, the claim for an agreed sum being, like damages, a common law remedy whereas specific performance and injunctions are equitable remedies that were once exclusively administered by the Court of Chancery.
Chapter
19. Restitutionary Awards
Jack Beatson, Andrew Burrows, and John Cartwright
This Chapter considers restitutionary remedies for breach of contract. It discusses the recovery of money paid, restitution in respect of services or goods, and an account of profits or damages measured by benefit to contract-breaker.
