SALE OF INDUSTRIAL COMMODITIES: DAMAGES FOR EXPECTATION AND RELIANCE LOSS

A C Daniels & Co Ltd v Jungwoo Logic (a firm) ((2000) unreported, 14 April, QBD)

1. Restoring the claimant in a contract claim to the financial position he would have occupied had the contract not been made is not a legitimate measure of damages in a claim for breach of contract, though it will often coincide in amount with some other measure that is awardable. Nothing in the decision of the Court of Appeal in Cullinane v British ‘Rema’ Manufacturing Co Ltd [1954] 1 QB 292 justifies the contrary proposition. It follows that a claimant cannot be required to elect between the ‘no-contract’ measure and the measure based on reliance loss.