Exemplary Damages in UK Law

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

    First, that your Lordships could not without a complete disregard of precedent, and indeed of statute, now arrive at a determination that refused altogether to recognise the exemplary principle. Secondly, that there are certain categories of cases in which an award of exemplary damages can serve a useful purpose in vindicating the strength of the law and thus affording a practical justification for admitting into the civil law a principle which ought logically to belong to the criminal.

    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.

    I wish now to express three considerations which I think should always be borne in mind when awards of exemplary damages are being considered. First, the Plaintiff cannot recover exemplary damages unless he is the victim of the punishable behaviour. The anomaly inherent in exemplary damages would become an absurdity if a Plaintiff totally unaffected by some oppressive conduct which the jury wished to punish obtained a windfall in consequence.

    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.

  • Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago v Ramanoop
    • Privy Council
    • 23 March 2005

    An award of compensation will go some distance towards vindicating the infringed constitutional right. The fact that the right violated was a constitutional right adds an extra dimension to the wrong. An additional award, not necessarily of substantial size, may be needed to reflect the sense of public outrage, emphasise the importance of the constitutional right and the gravity of the breach, and deter further breaches.

  • Mafo v Adams
    • Court of Appeal (Civil Division)
    • 17 October 1969

    As I understand Lord Devlin's speech, the circumstances in which exemplary damages may be obtained have been drastically reduced, but the range of offences in respect of which they may be granted has been increased, and I see no reason since Rookes, v Barnard why, when considering a claim for exemplary damages, one should regard the nature of the tort as excluding the claim.

  • Kuddus v Chief Constable of Leicestershire Constabulary
    • House of Lords
    • 07 June 2001

    From time to time cases do arise where awards of compensatory damages are perceived as inadequate to achieve a just result between the parties. On occasion conscious wrongdoing by a defendant is so outrageous, his disregard of the plaintiff's rights so contumelious, that something more is needed to show that the law will not tolerate such behaviour. Without an award of exemplary damages, justice will not have been done.

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Legislation
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Books & Journal Articles
  • Exemplary Damages After Camelford
    • No. 57-1, January 1994
    • The Modern Law Review
  • The Law Commission Report on Aggravated, Exemplary and Restitutionary Damages
    • No. 61-6, November 1998
    • The Modern Law Review
  • Effective Deterrence v Accessible Remedies: What Not to Borrow from US Discrimination Law
    • No. 6-2, March 2004
    • International Journal of Discrimination and the Law
    At a time when the UK consults on the appropriate powers and mission of a new single equality commission, the fight against discrimination must avoid unintentionally eroding the ability of the empl...
    ... ... dispute resolution by emphasizing punitive (exemp- lary) damages, class action lawsuits, and government funded strategic litigation to send ... for discriminatory acts as opposed to, say, from class actions, exemplary damages ... 1 1 2 deterrents, and government-backed strategic litigation ... ...
  • Remedies for Dishonest Assistance
    • No. 67-1, January 2004
    • The Modern Law Review
    The paper considers the nature of claims against dishonest assistants and the various money remedies those claims may evoke. Dishonest assistance is a form of civil secondary liability whereby the ...
    ... ... tion to trust propertyhas bee n suchthat he ought to be liable in damages for its loss as if he were a trustee who had disposed of the trust ... for disgorg ement of unauthorised pro¢ts and claims for exemplary damages ... All these di¡erent types of claimwill be consid- ered in turn f ... ...
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Law Firm Commentaries
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