Damages

When assessing damages for breach of contract by reference to the value of a company or other property at the date of breach, whose value depended upon a future contingency, account could be taken of what was subsequently known about the outcome of the contingency as a result of events subsequent to the valuation date where that was necessary in order to give effect to the compensatory principle. In an appropriate case, the valuation could be made with the benefit of hindsight, taking account of what was known of the outcome of the contingency at the time that the assessment fell to be made by the court. That was so not merely as a cross check against the reasonableness of prospective forecasting. It was so whatever view might prospectively be taken at the breach date of the outcome of the contingency. There were two qualifications however. The first was that it could only be justified where it was necessary