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Can you please clarify if the answer to the question below is sufficient enough in detail to merit the 5 possible marks?
Question: In the context of the award for breach of contract, describe the rules relating to:
(a) Remoteness of damage (5 marks)Answer:
Breach of Contract
Breach of contract occurs when without any lawful excuse a party breaches a condition of a contract, refuses to perform or accept obligations under it. This enables the injured party to sue for damages under common law, which is a monetary remedy aimed to compensate the injured party.
Remoteness of Damage
Even if a breach occurs, the courts will look at the remoteness of damage to determine whether the loss can be directly linked to the breach in awarding damages.
A two limb test was developed in the Hadley V Baxendale case which says that it must be proved that:
• The loss occurred as a natural consequence of the breach or it was in the contemplation of both parties that a breach would have such consequence
• Any exceptional loss occurring out of unusual events must have been within the knowledge of the defendant.
In the case of Victoria Laundry V Newman Industries it was held that the loss of abnormal profits out of potential lucrative deals was not within the knowledge of the defendant hence no damages were payable.
However in the Heron II case, it was held that the unusual loss of potential profits from sale of sugar should be within the knowledge of the defendant as the price of commodities are prone to fluctuations, hence a link was proved between the breach and the loss.Is this enough or do I need to expand in any areas?? This is the amount of detail I am applying on most of my answers,I just need to know if I need to improvise.
Thank you.
It really depends on how many marks were allocated to the part question. In the above case, the marks were 5. Are you really, genuinely, sincerely telling me that you read, thought and wrote the above (if it were hand-written) in just 9 minutes. If so, that’s great. 3 cases is WONDERFUL! – I have students passing this paper who claim that they never quoted a single case in their exam answers.
No, I believe that if I were faced with such an answer, I would find it VERY difficult to give less than 4 and could possibly even stretch it to 5!
Oh thank you Sir..you really have made my day and boosted my confidence. I have gone over some topics such as contract law so many times that I don’t need to think that heard for the answers, it is just saying about enough but not too much. Fortunately, I am a fast writer and have ACTUALLY produced that answer hand written in the allocated time, quicker in fact, hence I was worried that it may not contain sufficient detail.
Sometimes there is so much to say on a topic to give it full justice, that when I am counting one mark one point, I feel I have not said enough to achieve the full marks. Such as the second part to the same question above:
(b) the measure of damages for 5 marksWhat 5 most important points would you include?
monetary award
not punishment
compensation (Andrews v Singer) ( Lazenby Garages v Wright)
place the injured in the position they would have been in without the breach
Court may award quantum meruit (Hoenig v Isaacs)
Substantial performance (swimming pool case)(Ruxley Electronics)
injured must have been in a position themselves to honour their contractual obligations (Ship in Singapore – should have been in Haiphong)Not awarded if beyond reasonable foreseeability
Not awarded if contract “frustrated”
Implied promise to pay a reasonable sum (Lampleigh v Braithwait)That should get some marks
Thank you Sir…sure did have good luck. Either I do really well or enough to pass, without going into detail what came up! Thanks to all the support opentuition provides us…it really makes a huge difference.
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