Building Law Monthly
Remoteness of damage in contract
In
Attorney-General of the Virgin Islands v Global Water Associates Ltd [2020] UKPC 18, the Privy Council held that an employer which was in breach of a contract to design and build a plant as
a result of its failure to make the site available to the contractor was liable for the loss of profit suffered by the contractor
under a separate agreement between the parties which had been entered into on the same day to manage, operate and maintain
the plant once it had been built. The loss was held not to be too remote a consequence of the breach of the design and build
contract notwithstanding the fact that it was a loss that arose under a contract which was legally separate from the design
and build contract. The justification for holding the employer liable was that these losses were held to be within the reasonable
contemplation of the employer at the time at which it entered into the design and build contract as liable to result from
the breach of that contract. This being the case, the losses were not too remote a consequence of the breach of contract.