Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
LIABILITY TO PAY INTEREST: USE VALUE AND TIME VALUE
Mark Hsiao*
Littlewoods v HMRC
A common law claim to recover the time value of money, the measure of a restitutionary claim for the award of interest at the rate of compound interest for the period of time that the money could not be used, has been recognised now for just over a decade.1 The focus of the law is whether the person in receipt of the money has an actual benefit or any form of benefit during the period of time in which the money was held in his possession.2 In Sempra Metals Ltd v IRC,3 the Law Lords’ comments on the right of the restitutionary
* Associate Professor in Commercial Law, University of Leicester.
1. Sempra Metals Ltd v IRC [2007] UKHL 34; [2008] AC 561; [2008] Bus LR 49.
2. Littlewoods Retail Ltd v HMRC [2010] EWHC 1071 (Ch); [2010] STC 2072.
3. Supra, fn.1 (hereafter “Sempra”).
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