header-logo header-logo

In it for the long haul?

27 July 2012 / Joanne Keillor , Caroline Kehoe
Issue: 7524 / Categories: Features , Commercial
printer mail-detail
istock_000003387338medium_4

Caroline Kehoe & Joanne Keillor examine the consequences of an endeavours obligation on a long term contract

“Parties should approach an endeavours obligation contained within a long-term contract with particular caution”

What are the implications of an endeavours obligation in a long-term contract? What happens if the commercial circumstances change, such that it is no longer desirable for a party to continue to perform a contract in the same way it has been performed initially? Can the party limit or abandon its performance because it would otherwise incur a loss?

These issues arose in the case of Jet2.com Limited v Blackpool Airport Limited [2012] EWCA Civ 417, [2012] All ER (D) 24 (Apr) where the Court of Appeal found, by a majority, that Blackpool’s obligation to use best endeavours to promote Jet2’s low-cost services gave rise to an enforceable obligation to operate outside normal opening hours, as this was essential to Jet2’s business model. Blackpool could not escape this obligation on the basis that to comply would be

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