Exam questions

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A page dedicated to those curly juridical conundrums that real life occasionally throws up. You have three hours.

Privity, loss and the litigation settlement deed

Persons E, R and A once interacted in unsavoury ways.

It's all messy, but a while ago E settled all claims R made relating to a notional set of alleged civil wrongs, including ones allegedly committed vs R by A, by paying A $500,000.

R accepted this in full and final settlement of all claims vs E, on legal advice, without duress, and with no admission of liability by E (or on behalf of A).

Let's then say E died.

Later, R launched a civil suit against A, notwithstanding the allegations being covered by the prior settlement agreement with the late E.

Assuming it is enforceable according to its terms, what relevance is the full and final settlement between E (dec’d) and R?

If we can take this as R’s own subjective assessment of the total value to R of the injury caused by all the notional events covered by the settlement (hence satisfactory compensation, otherwise R would not have agreed it), then:

(i) the total value of A’s civil wrong, if it happened, being only part of that notional set of events, must be less than that total amount; and

(ii) seeing as R has already been paid that amount, by R’s own admission, R has already been compensated in full for A’s actions, whatever they were, and cannot claim further amounts.

Can R claim against A, and for how much?