DATE OF ASSESSMENT OF CONTRACT DAMAGES

Golden Strait Corporation v Nippon Yusen Kubishika Kaisha [2007] UKHL 12; [2007] 2 WLR 691

In Golden Strait Corporation v Nippon Yusen Kubishika Kaisha [2007] UKHL 12; [2007] 2 WLR 691 the House of Lords held that the principle that damages for breach of contract should be assessed as at the date of the breach of contract is not an inflexible rule. The underlying principle is that the aim of an award of damages is to put the claimant in the financial position which it would have been in had the contract been performed according to its terms; that is to say, the claimant is entitled to recover damages representing the value of the contractual benefit of which it has been deprived. While this aim will be met in most cases by assessing damages as at the date of breach, it will not be achieved in all cases. In these exceptional cases damages need not be assessed as at the date of breach.