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Contract damages are usually assessed at the date of breach—but not always. Writing in NLJ this week, Ian Gascoigne, knowledge lawyer at LexisNexis, examines the growing body of cases where courts have allowed later events to reshape compensation
Analysing decisions from The Golden Victory to Bunge v Nidera and the recent ETL Holdings litigation, Gascoigne explains how judges sometimes look beyond the breach date to avoid overcompensating claimants.
Wars, export bans and even later debt compromises can all affect the ‘value of the contractual benefits’ actually lost. Yet courts remain cautious about relying on hindsight, particularly in share sale warranty disputes.
Gascoigne concludes that exceptions to the traditional rule require ‘a significant justification based on the interests of justice’, leaving lawyers to navigate an increasingly nuanced and fact-sensitive area of contract law.
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