What happens if one party to a contract fails to perform? Can the innocent party get all of its losses back? What happens if the losses are difficult to prove?
Here, we look at what you can claim and how to protect your position.
The general rule
Damages for breach of contract are usually intended to compensate the injured party for its losses arising naturally from the breach or which were within the parties' contemplation when the contract was made.
This article was written by Greg Standing, partner in Wragge & Co LLP's finance, insolvency, recoveries and sales team and published in the July issue of Motor Finance.
When a claimant discontinues its claim, the usual position is that it has to pay the defendant's reasonable legal costs. This is the general presumption under the Civil Procedure Rules and applies unless there is good reason for it not to.
The Alberta Court of Appeal recently ruled on a case1 dealing with the priority of claims to the bank accounts of a petroleum operator which had gone into receivership, where the operatorship was governed by the 1990 CAPL Operating Procedure. The operator had failed to pay to the non-operators revenues of approximately $300,000, having only $58,000 left in the commingled account. The Operating Procedure imposes a trust on the production revenues but also expressly allows intermingling of these funds with the operator's general funds.
The absence of an intention to put assets out of the reach of creditors will thwart applications under the Insolvency Act to set declarations of trust or transfers aside.
The bankrupt’s trustee applied for a possession order of his home. The bankrupt unsuccessfully appealed his bankruptcy, the order in litigation that had led to his bankruptcy and the possession order, but he refused throughout to give up possession and applied for a committal order. The court found the bankrupt in contempt of court for failing to give possession and sentenced him to six months’ imprisonment.
On June 1, 2022, California-based Zosano Pharma Corporation, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company enabling the systemic administration of therapeutics and other bioactive molecules to patients using a proprietary transdermal microneedle patch system, filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the Bankruptcy Court for District of Delaware (Case No. 22-10506).
“On December 17, 2021, Tokyo-based specialty purpose vehicles JPA No. 111 Co., Ltd. and JPA No. 49 Co., Ltd. formed to acquire and lease Airbus A350 aircraft, filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (Case No. 21-12075). The company reports $100 to $500 million in both assets and liabilities.
On August 31, 2021, Sequential Brands Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:SQBG), together with its wholly-owned subsidiaries that own, manage and license a large-scale and diversified portfolio of consumer brands across multiple industries, filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Case No. 21-11194). The company reports $442.8 million in assets and $435.1 million in liabilities.
On June 1, 2021, JDS Fourth Avenue LLC, a New York-based real estate development company, filed a petition under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware (Case No. 21-10888). The company estimated $1 million to $10 million in both assets and liabilities.