Account of Profits in UK Law

Leading Cases
  • WWF World Wide Fund for Nature (formerly World Wildlife Fund) v World Wrestling Federation Entertainment Inc.
    • Court of Appeal (Civil Division)
    • 02 April 2007

    When the court makes an award of damages on the Wrotham Park basis it does so because it is satisfied that that is a just response to circumstances in which the compensation which is the claimant's due cannot be measured (or cannot be measured solely) by reference to identifiable financial loss. The circumstances in which an award of damages on the Wrotham Park basis may be an appropriate response, and those in which the appropriate response is an account of profits, may differ in degree.

  • Attorney-General v Blake (pet. all.)
    • House of Lords
    • 27 July 2000

    But the common law, pragmatic as ever, has long recognised that there are many commonplace situations where a strict application of this principle would not do justice between the parties. Then compensation for the wrong done to the plaintiff is measured by a different yardstick.

    In some cases equity required the wrongdoer to yield up all his gains. In respect of certain wrongs which originally or ordinarily were the subject of proceedings in the Court of Chancery, the standard remedies were injunction and, incidental thereto, an account of profits. Some of these subjects are now embodied in statutory codes.

    The Wrotham Park case, therefore, still shines, rather as a solitary beacon, showing that in contract as well as tort damages are not always narrowly confined to recoupment of financial loss. In a suitable case damages for breach of contract may be measured by the benefit gained by the wrongdoer from the breach. The defendant must make a reasonable payment in respect of the benefit he has gained. The claim is for all the profits of Blake's book which the publisher has not yet paid him.

    The law recognises that damages are not always a sufficient remedy for breach of contract. Even when awarding damages, the law does not adhere slavishly to the concept of compensation for financially measurable loss. When the circumstances require, damages are measured by reference to the benefit obtained by the wrongdoer. Further, in certain circumstances an account of profits is ordered in preference to an award of damages.

    It will be only in exceptional cases, where those remedies are inadequate, that any question of accounting for profits will arise. A useful general guide, although not exhaustive, is whether the plaintiff had a legitimate interest in preventing the defendant's profit-making activity and, hence, in depriving him of his profit.

  • Gwembe Valley Development Company Ltd v Koshy and Another
    • Court of Appeal (Civil Division)
    • 28 July 2003

    They arose directly out of the transaction which gave rise to those profits, and the circumstances in which it was made. The fact that Mr Koshy was in a pre-existing fiduciary relationship with the company was not enough, by itself, to bring the case within class 1, any more than it was in Taylor v Davies.

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Books & Journal Articles
  • Redrow Homes Ltd and Another v Bett Bros plc and Another [1998] 1 All ER 385
    • No. 6-3, January 1999
    • Journal of Financial Crime
    • 252-253
    Originating from a Scottish action, this seminal House of Lords decision rules on the narrow question of awarding ‘additional damages’ under s. 97(2) Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (herein...
    ... ... 1988 (hereinafter referred to as CDPA), in a situation where an account of profits was sought by a pur-suer. In this action the pursuers were ... ...
  • Deliberate Breach of Contract and Consequences for Remedies: Exploration of a Neglected Area in the Law of Contract
    • No. 21-1, March 2014
    • Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law
    This contribution argues that motive matters in cases of breach of contract. More specifically, deliberateness of breach of contract matters in the application of remedies for breach of contract. T...
    ... ... Creditors should have access to account of pro ts. Penalty clauses should be upheld and not be subject to ... DELIBERATE BREACH AND ACCOUNT OF PROFITS is contribution argues that where there is a deliberate breach, a ... ...
  • Morris-Garner v One Step (Support) Ltd: Limiting the Scope of Gain-Based Damages
    • No. , May 2019
    • Edinburgh Law Review
    • 242-247
    ... ... on the basis of a hypothetical release fee amounting to 5% of the profits made by the developer, a sum the court reckoned the developer might ... The ruling in this highly unusual case – where an account of profits was awarded to the Crown for breach of contract by the ... ...
  • The Treatment of Teacher v Calder in AG v Blake
    • No. 65-2, March 2002
    • The Modern Law Review
    ... ... Homes Ltd , 8 the disgorgement ordered in Blake was a total ‘account of profits’. 9 It seems unarguable that Blake now recognises a general ... ...
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Law Firm Commentaries
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Forms
  • Common form of order for sale
    • HM Courts & Tribunals Service court and tribunal forms
    Chancery forms, including claim forms and applications for orders.
    ... ... in the property or the net proceeds of its sale taking into account the mutual dealings of the Claimant and the Defendant in respect of the operty in relation to rents and profits or otherwise and the values of their respective occupations of the ... ...
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