Third-party gains
13 September 2012
Thanks to recent judgments, contractual losses inflicted by third parties should no longer disappear into the ether. The construction industry should take note, warn Peter Marsh and Frank Griffiths
It is not only astronomers that are interested in black holes. Lawyers are too. Where one party to a contract has a right to claim damages but the loss has been suffered by someone who is not a party to the contract, two legal rules combine to prevent anyone recovering the loss - it disappears into a black hole. The first is privity of contract. Only a party to the...