‘DIRECT LOSS’, REPUDIATION, TERMINATION AND COMPENSATION FOR LOSS OF BARGAIN

Chiemgauer Membran und Zeltbau GmbH v The New Millennium Experience Company Ltd (High Court, Chancery Division; unreported, 15 December 2000)

1. The words ‘direct loss’ or ‘direct loss and/or damage’ in a commercial contract refer to losses that are comprised in the first limb of Hadley v Baxendale (1854) 9 Ex 341, viz those losses which arise naturally and in the ordinary course of things from the triggering event. The phrase can in appropriate circumstances include a loss of profit occasioned by the triggering event.