With the continuing rise in the number of cases of novel coronavirus worldwide, in addition to obvious implications of the outbreak for individuals, businesses are likely to be exposed to a heightened risk of legal implications arising across their supply chain. In this briefing, Natasha Johnson, Robert Moore and Yasmin Mitha consider the scope for … Read more

This annual contract law update from our corporate team considers a number of interesting contract law cases from 2019 which highlighted key points for those involved in drafting or managing contracts. The cases chosen deal with formation and certainty of terms, interpretation and implied terms, good faith, severance, loss and remedies, penalties, force majeure, notice provisions, … Read more

Obligations to endeavour to achieve some object are commonly agreed in commercial contracts where the relevant party is not willing to take on an absolute obligation to that effect. Typical clauses may require the use of “best endeavours”, “reasonable endeavours” or “all reasonable endeavours”, but it is not always clear what these terms require in practice. In this fifth … Read more

In a recent decision, the Commercial Court found that an express and (on its face) unqualified right to discharge the operator in a Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) was not subject to any implied term of good faith, or that the right would not be exercised capriciously, arbitrarily or unreasonably: TAQA Bratani Limited and Others v RockRose … Read more

In a recent case, the High Court has clarified the correct approach to reducing damages in order to reflect a finding of contributory negligence where there is also a contractual cap on liability: Natixis SA v Marex Financial and Access World Logistics (Singapore) Pte Ltd [2019] EWHC 3163. The defendant argued that the court should … Read more

The Court of Appeal has granted an award for unjust enrichment where a claimant was contractually entitled to receive an introduction fee if a property was sold for a specified price and the property had been sold for less than that price: Philip Barton v Timothy Gwyn-Jones [2019] EWCA Civ 1999. The court rejected the … Read more

In a recent decision, the High Court has upheld a claim for breach of collateral warranty where the claimant was induced to arrange the purchase of the defendant’s laser hair removal devices for use in its business as a result of the defendant’s statements about the quality and anticipated performance of the devices. The claimant … Read more

The traditional starting point in English contract law is that parties are free to do what they like so long as they do not breach the agreed terms. But it is becoming increasingly common for parties to agree terms requiring them to act in “good faith”, or similar. Even where no such term is expressed … Read more