Exclusion of Consequential Damages. Each newsletter has a great deal of content and the daily feed allows you to 'pace' yourself. Direct losses are those which any reasonable person might expect to follow from the breach. They function in many different ways, such as designating which party will pay for certain losses that may arise. Expect top level legal skills, but from a firm built and run at a human scale. whether the owner's 'spread costs' (overheads such as the costs of personnel, equipment and services contracted from third parties which were wasted as a result of the delay) were within the meaning of consequential losses set out in the mutual indemnities. Notwithstanding this importance, parties are not always clear on what kind of losses the terms “indirect” and “consequential” loss capture? Sadly, there is no comprehensive list of what losses will always be considered to be "direct" or "consequential". A separate argument put forward by the contractor was that regardless of the construction of the mutual indemnities, the contractor should be entitled to recover its 'spread costs' by setting them off against monies payable under the contract. Direct vs consequential loss: is there a difference anymore? It was decided that the principle of freedom of contact required the Court to give effect to the parties' agreement and the contractor was not entitled to recover consequential losses for the period of delay as the contractor was obliged to indemnify the owner against the contractor's own consequential losses. In practice, it can be difficult to determine whether a loss falls within the first or second category. It was relevant to the interpretation applied by the Court in this case that the parties were of equal bargaining power. The term "consequential loss" is often used in everyday language as shorthand for a broad category of losses including loss of profit, loss of opportunity, loss of goodwill and so on. Each case will be decided on the specific facts. For an exclusion clause to be effective it must clearly identify what losses are being excluded. The Court noted that an interesting feature of the contract in question was the extent to which the parties had agreed to accept responsibility for losses that might otherwise have been recoverable as damages for breach of contract. Transocean Drilling UK Ltd v Providence Resources Plc [2016] EWCA Civ 372. The delay resulted in a number of disputes between the parties including whether the delay was caused by the owner's breach of contract. Exclusion clauses in a contract aim to exclude a party’s liability for certain types of losses. Construction and engineering contracts often therefore contain clauses excluding the contractor's liability for consequential losses. On this point, it is important to note that there is a risk that a clause that excludes liability for "consequential losses, including loss of profit" would not have the effect of excluding liability for all loss of profits. There was no appeal to that aspect of the High Court's judgment. Keep a step ahead of your key competitors and benchmark against them. Helping you with the responsibilities of wealth, from securing the growth of assets to guiding you through complex and sensitive situations. Even assuming that the \"battle of the forms\" has been won, if a party is trading on its standard terms an unusual or unclear exclusion clause may fail if it is not given a sufficient degree of prominence to put the other party on notice. You've probably seen this type of "exclusion clause" hundreds of times in ICT and other commercial contracts and not thought much of it. It is also worth noting that cases dealing generally with the concept of consequential loss may be interpreted quite differently. This wording was said to expand the exclusion clause to include the costs of services from third parties such as those being claimed by the contractor as 'spread costs'. If you would like to learn how Lexology can drive your content marketing strategy forward, please email enquiries@lexology.com. Don’t forget that the Australian Consumer Law cannot be excluded and any attempt to exclude the ACL may result in an unenforceable or void contract, not to mention criminal liab… Please contact customerservices@lexology.com. The mutual nature of the clause also showed the parties intended this to have a wide meaning. within an IP licence agreement. It is essential that these clauses are drafted clearly and without ambiguity if … However, without careful drafting, such clauses may not always achieve what the contractor intends. I spoke about the Consequential Loss Exclusion at the inaugural MII Liability Conference in 2009 ( Gosh its going to be decade soon). 5It is possible for the words used in a contract to amount to an indemnity even if the word is not expressly used. The content is relevant to the areas that I address and the articles are written by counsel who are very experienced in these areas and can communicate in a meaningful and effective way. Consequential loss exclusion clauses are very common in commercial contracts, especially in those relating to construction and energy projects. Mutual indemnities and exclusion of consequential losses in commercial contract upheld by the Court of Appeal. about Coronavirus (COVID-19) Insights and Information, Mutual indemnities and exclusion of consequential losses in commercial contract upheld by the Court of Appeal, about Investigations: Bribery & Corruption, about The French Government extends exceptional insolvency measures related to the COVID-19 crisis up to the 31st December 2021, about Charles Russell Speechlys launches as Hong Kong firm and welcomes litigator Ray Ng, about Charles Russell Speechlys continues international expansion with the hire of four new partners, the mutual indemnities (or 'knock-for-knock' provisions as they are known in the oil & gas industry) whereby losses arising from the performance of the contract were allocated between the two parties including a mutual undertaking by the owner and the contractor to indemnify each other against its own consequential losses; and. ``, © Copyright 2006 - 2020 law business Research in business +44 ( ). 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