Damages and Restitution in UK Law

Leading Cases
  • Rookes v Barnard
    • House of Lords
    • 21 January 1964

    It extends to cases in which the Defendant is seeking to gain at the expense of the Plaintiff some object,—perhaps some property which he covets,—which either he could not obtain at all or not obtain except at a price greater than he wants to put down. Exemplary damages can properly be awarded whenever it is necessary to teach a wrongdoer that tort does not pay.

    In a case in which exemplary damages are appropriate, a jury should be directed that if, but only if, the sum which they have in mind to award as compensation (which may of course be a sum aggravated by the way in which the Defendant has behaved to the Plaintiff) is inadequate to punish him for his outrageous conduct, to mark their disapproval of such conduct and to deter him from repeating it, then it can award some larger sum.

  • British Transport Commission v Gourley
    • House of Lords
    • 08 December 1955

    In an action for personal injuries the damages are always divided into two main parts. First, there is what is referred to as special damage which has to be specially pleaded and proved. This consists of out-of-pocket expenses and loss of earnings incurred down to the date of trial, and is generally capable of substantially exact calculation. Secondly, there is general damage which the law implies and is not specially pleaded.

  • M'Alister or Donoghue (Pauper) v Stevenson
    • House of Lords
    • 26 May 1932

    You must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be likely to injure your neighbour. The answer seems to be persons who are so closely and directly affected by my act that I ought reasonably to have them in contemplation as being so affected when I am directing my mind to the acts or omissions which are called in question.

  • Anns v Merton London Borough Council
    • House of Lords
    • 12 May 1977

    First one has to ask whether, as between the alleged wrongdoer and the person who has suffered damage there is a sufficient relationship of proximity or neighbourhood such that, in the reasonable contemplation of the former, carelessness on his part may be likely to cause damage to the latter—in which case a prima facie duty of care arises.

  • Davies v Powell Duffryn Associated Collieries (No. 2)
    • House of Lords
    • 27 April 1942

    In effect the Court, before it interferes with an award of damages, should be satisfied that the Judge has acted upon a wrong principle of law, or has misapprehended the facts, or has for these or other reasons made a wholly erroneous estimate of the damage suffered. It is not enough that there is a balance of opinion or preference. The scale must go down heavily against the figure attacked if the Appellate Court is to interfere, whether on the ground of excess or insufficiency.

  • Broome v Cassell & Company Ltd
    • House of Lords
    • 23 February 1972

    Such actions involve a money award which may put the plaintiff in a purely financial sense in a much stronger position than he was before the wrong. Not merely can he recover the estimated sum of his past and future losses, but, in case the libel, driven underground, emerges from its lurking place at some future date, he must be able to point to a sum awarded by a jury sufficient to convince a bystander of the baselessness of the charge.

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Legislation
  • Matrimonial Causes Act 1857
    • UK Non-devolved
    • January 01, 1857
    ... ... of Marriage, Suits for Restitution of Conjugal Rights, and in all Causes, Suits, and Matters ... Matrimonial, ... S-XXXIII ... Husband may claim Damages from Adulterers. XXXIII Husband may claim Damages from Adulterers ... ...
  • Common Law Procedure Act 1854
    • UK Non-devolved
    • January 01, 1854
    ... ... and such Issue of Fact may thereupon be tried and determined, and Damages assessed where necessary, ... in open Court, either in Term or Vacation, ... shall have Power to adjudge Payment of Costs, and to order Restitution; and they shall have the same Powers as the Court of Error in respect of ... ...
  • Matrimonial Causes Act 1965
    • UK Non-devolved
    • January 01, 1965
  • Financial Services and Markets Act 2000
    • UK Non-devolved
    • January 01, 2000
    ... ... 3, Sch ... Breach of statutory duty ... 71 Actions for damages ... (1) A contravention of section 56(6) or 59(1) or (2) is actionable ... persons and persons exercising those rights, for the restitution of property and the making or recovery of payments where those rights are ... ...
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Books & Journal Articles
  • Recovery of Compound Interest as Restitution or Damages
    • No. 71-2, March 2008
    • The Modern Law Review
  • The Division of Marital Assets Following Divorce
    • No. 25-3, September 1998
    • Journal of Law and Society
    In this paper, several possible bases for post‐divorce asset division are examined from an economics‐of‐law perspective, focusing in particular on the incentives for opportunistic behaviour set up ...
    ... ... for opportunistic behaviour set up by the use of reliance, restitution, partnership, rehabilitation, and needs-based approaches. The current ... The paper explores the case for using an expectations-damages approach, given that this can deter opportunistic divorce. The conclusions ... ...
  • Pacta Sunt Servanda: Contrasting Disgorgement Damages with Efficient Breaches under Article 74 CISG
    • No. 3, June 2018
    • LSE Law Review
    • Florence Eicher
    • LLM candidate, specialising in Competition, Innovation and Trade Law
    • 29-43
    The contractual remedy of disgorgement damages has increasingly gained acceptance in international legal practice. Disgorgement of profits can result from a situation in which contractual breach is...
    ... ... Additionally, the concept of disgorgement is not alien to the CISG and is allowed for restitution of goods under Article 84(2) CISG. This provision states that the buyer must account to the seller for all benefits which he has derived from the ... ...
  • Index
    • No. 61-6, November 1998
    • The Modern Law Review
    ... ... Report (1996) 382, 390 Aggravated, Exemplary and Restitutionary Damages, Law Commission Report (1997) 860 Cloning Issues in Reproduction, ... REMEDIES Punitive damages 860 Restitutionary damages 860 RESTITUTION Damages 860 Enrichment and rescission 255 Theory 580 TAXATION Corrective ... ...
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Law Firm Commentaries
  • Unpaid Builder Cannot Claim In Restitution From Shareholders Of Client
    • Mondaq United Kingdom
    ... ... an unfair result, since MacDonald had pitched low for the business and so would have obtained more from an award in restitution than in damages for breach of contract ... This case demonstrates the importance of assessing the worth of the other contracting party, and obtaining the ... ...
  • Restraint of Trade: Nothing retro about restrictive covenants as retailer gets shirty over losses
    • JD Supra United Kingdom
    Following breach of a restrictive covenant, Score Draw applied to the court for damages and injunctive relief claiming PNH’s breach had caused Liverpool FC’s refusal to renew a retail licence: Scor...
    ... ... of a restrictive covenant, Score Draw applied to the court for damages and injunctive relief claiming PNH’s breach had caused Liverpool FC’s ... revenues lost by the non-renewal of the licence were a fair restitution. PNH did not believe that such damages were acceptable; claiming that any ... ...
  • Effective Methods for Securing Assets in Germany
    • Mondaq United Kingdom
    ... ... defrauded parties a unique opportunity to secure claims for restitution of property and for damages by combining freezing orders pursuant to ... ...
  • Red Card For Penalty Damages
    • Mondaq United Kingdom
    ... ... whether Devenish were entitled to the following heads of ... An account of profits ... Restitution of unjust enrichment ... Exemplary damages ... At first instance, the judge rejected Devenish's claims on ... the above heads ... Devenish appealed ... ...
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