Kavitha Gupta's blog

Hard-nosed commercial negotiation that exploits monopoly advantage not duress   Times Travel’s business depended upon selling Pakistan International Airlines’ tickets. The travel agency was pressured by the airline to waive claims for unpaid commissions under its old contract, by the threat of the airline not entering a new contract. The airline had no obligation to enter into the new contract, but the travel agency could not survive without it. The agency signed a waiver agreement but later argued that it should be rescinded for duress. The UK Supreme Court held that, “While this entailed hard-nosed commercial negotiation that exploited [the airline's] position as a monopoly supplier, it did not involve the reprehensible means of applying pressure” and so was not economic, or lawful act, duress. Duress is a common law basis on which to rescind a contract. The essential elements are: there must be a threat or pressure exerted by D that is illegitimate (but not necessarily unla...

20 July 2021 The UK Supreme Court has held that accrued liquidated damages survived termination where the contractor never completed the work in question. The relevant contract was for the development of software by Triple Point, and provided for the payment of liquidated damages for undelivered work “per day of delay from the due date for delivery up to the date PTT accepts such work”. The  Court of Appeal  had noted that the “orthodox” position was that, if the work was never finished, liquidated damages accrued up to the date of termination of the contract, but not after.  However, in Triple Point, the provision that the liquidated damages were to be paid up to the date of completion (when the works were accepted) meant that they had no application where the contractor never completed the works at all, and the employer would instead need to claim general damages with respect to the outstanding works.  The Court of Appeal considered that the little-known case of...