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Damage control

26 January 2012 / Timothy Trotman
Issue: 7498 / Categories: Features , Damages , Commercial
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Timothy Trotman examines the development of the scope of duty test after The Achilleas

Recovery of damages that arise naturally or according to the usual course of things is the very familiar first limb of what Alderson B described as “the proper rule” in Hadley v Baxendale [1843-60] All ER Rep 461. Is this rule still fit for purpose as a principle of general application? Or is it just shorthand for what parties are normally taken to have intended, and can it be supplemented by a new “scope of duty” test? What then would be the relation between the new and the old rules?


The Achilleas

These were the issues raised in 2008 in Transfield Shipping inc v Mercator Shipping inc [2008] UKHL 4, [2008] NI 152 hereafter The Achilleas. This article attempts to look at how this case has fared since then.
 
By a time charter of January 2003, owners let The Achilleas to charterers; and by a September 2003 addendum, hire was extended until 2 May 2004. In April
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NEWS
The government’s plan to introduce a Single Professional Services Supervisor could erode vital legal-sector expertise, warns Mark Evans, president of the Law Society of England and Wales, in NLJ this week
Writing in NLJ this week, Jonathan Fisher KC of Red Lion Chambers argues that the ‘failure to prevent’ model of corporate criminal responsibility—covering bribery, tax evasion, and fraud—should be embraced, not resisted
Professor Graham Zellick KC argues in NLJ this week that, despite Buckingham Palace’s statement stripping Andrew Mountbatten Windsor of his styles, titles and honours, he remains legally a duke
Writing in NLJ this week, Sophie Ashcroft and Miranda Joseph of Stevens & Bolton dissect the Privy Council’s landmark ruling in Jardine Strategic Ltd v Oasis Investments II Master Fund Ltd (No 2), which abolishes the long-standing 'shareholder rule'
In NLJ this week, Sailesh Mehta and Theo Burges of Red Lion Chambers examine the government’s first-ever 'Afghan leak' super-injunction—used to block reporting of data exposing Afghans who aided UK forces and over 100 British officials. Unlike celebrity privacy cases, this injunction centred on national security. Its use, the authors argue, signals the rise of a vast new body of national security law spanning civil, criminal, and media domains
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