header-logo header-logo

Contract

06 December 2013
Issue: 7587 / Categories: Case law , Law digest , In Court
printer mail-detail

Cavendish Square Holdings BV and another company v Makdessi [2013] EWCA Civ 1539, [2013] All ER (D) 290 (Nov)

Authority established that, in a case where there was a range of possible loss attributable to the breach or breaches upon which a liquidated sum became payable under a contractual clause, the following guidelines were relevant for determining whether the clause was a genuine pre-estimate: (i) a sum would be penal if it was extravagant in amount in comparison with the maximum conceivable loss for the breach; (ii) a sum payable on the happening or non-happening of a particular event was not to be presumed to be penal simply because the fact that the event did or did not occur was the result of several breaches of varying severity; (iii) a sum payable in respect of different breaches of the same stipulation was not to be presumed to be penal because the effect of the breach might vary; (iv) the same applied in respect of breaches of different stipulations if the damage likely to arise from those breaches was

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

DWF—19 appointments

DWF—19 appointments

Belfast team bolstered by three senior hires and 16 further appointments

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Cadwalader—Andro Atlaga

Firm strengthens leveraged finance team with London partner hire

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Knights—Ella Dodgson & Rebecca Laffan

Double hire marks launch of family team in Leeds

NEWS
The Supreme Court issued a landmark judgment in July that overturned the convictions of Tom Hayes and Carlo Palombo, once poster boys of the Libor and Euribor scandal. In NLJ this week, Neil Swift of Peters & Peters considers what the ruling means for financial law enforcement
Bea Rossetto of the National Pro Bono Centre makes the case for ‘General Practice Pro Bono’—using core legal skills to deliver life-changing support, without the need for niche expertise—in this week's NLJ
In this week's NLJ, Steven Ball of Red Lion Chambers unpacks how advances in forensic science finally unmasked Ryland Headley, jailed in 2025 for the 1967 rape and murder of 75-year-old Louisa Dunne. Preserved swabs and palm prints lay dormant for decades until DNA-17 profiling produced a billion-to-one match
Small law firms want to embrace technology but feel lost in a maze of jargon, costs and compliance fears, writes Aisling O’Connell of the Solicitors Regulation Authority in this week's NLJ
Charlie Mercer and Astrid Gillam of Stewarts crunch the numbers on civil fraud claims in the English courts, in this week's NLJ. New data shows civil fraud claims rising steadily since 2014, with the King’s Bench Division overtaking the Commercial Court as the forum of choice for lower-value disputes
back-to-top-scroll