REUTERS |
December 8, 2015

No implied term of mutual trust and confidence in commercial contracts

We have been asked to advise our clients and colleagues on numerous recent occasions whether a commercial contract can be terminated because of a breakdown of trust and confidence. Unfortunately, for all of those who sought that advice, the answer is no. Two recent English cases have confirmed that the courts will not generally imply a duty of mutual trust and confidence into commercial contracts. While such a term is implied into employment contracts, the courts have held that there is no justification for extending this to other types of commercial contract. Continue reading →

REUTERS | Maxim Shemetov
December 3, 2015

Cavendish Square v El Makdessi and ParkingEye v Beavis: a reinterpretation of consumer protection law

In this blog post, we consider the impact of the recent Supreme Court decision in Cavendish Square Holding BV v El Makdessi and ParkingEye Ltd v Beavis (Beavis).

The Supreme Court welcomed the opportunity to consider the “penalty rule” in two cases at the opposite end of the financial spectrum. As well as further clarifying the position with regard to contractual penalties, both through the application of principles to the facts and through further explicit guidance, Beavis is an important reinterpretation of consumer protection law. Continue reading →

REUTERS | Gene Blevins
December 3, 2015

Denton and adverse costs orders: a balancing exercise

In R (Idira) v Secretary of State for the Home Department, the Court of Appeal was primarily concerned with the lawfulness of the Home Secretary’s policy of using prisons, and not Immigration Removal Centres, to detain time-served convicted foreign national offenders. In the same appeal, however, it was required to consider the procedural issue of relief from sanction for delay: less weighty, perhaps, than the substantive subject matter of the appeal, but nonetheless of interest to litigators. Continue reading →