Consequential loss
Not to be confused with direct loss
Losses are pecuniary misfortunes that you might suffer as a result of a breach of contract. They can be divided into:
Note that “loss of profit” and “loss of opportunity” are not judicially recognised categories of loss: they can be either direct — for example, foregone interest on a defaulted payment — or indirect — the winnings you would have got from putting that defaulted payment on a rank outsider who came good in the 2:35 at Kempton — but if in doubt (i.e., not a natural consequence of the breach) assume they will be indirect Damages are the amounts a court orders a naughty counterparty to pay to an innocent to compensate for its loss of bargain (in a contract) or atone for its wrongdoing (in a tort or breach of trust). They may, or may not, be the same amount as the actual losses suffered:
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Consequential loss, sometimes called indirect loss, relational economic loss, is a loss arising from a breach of contract not caused directly by the breach, but as a second-order consequence of it: such as the opportunity cost to the innocent party of having a contract with you which you did not then perform.
It is not the same as a loss of opportunity or loss of profits: these may be direct losses or indirect losses, depending on the contract (see Hadley v Baxendale). Let us take an example:
Under a contract I agreed to rent you my car for the weekend. You failed to pay the agreed rental. As this is an breach of contract, I sue.
Direct loss: My direct loss is the rental income you were supposed to pay me for the rental period. It is predictable, finite, determinate and easy the parties to hold in contemplation. “If I can’t go through with this the worst I can be stuck with is the cost of renting that car for a week”.
Consequential loss: Had I not committed to rent you my car, I could have rented it to someone else for more money. My “consequential loss” is the extra income I could have earned doing that. also, I could have used it myself, and earned money as, I don’t know — a limo driver. This is generally harder to get your head around. Almost everything about this is speculative, including what I was planning to do with the car in the first place. I could have rented a car elsewhere (at exactly, or less than, my direct loss) and mitigated my consequential loss without bothering the party in breach.
In the old days, there was some authority that consequential loss was not recoverable at all, unless specifically in the contemplation of the parties — that authority is Hadley v Baxendale.
These days, the extent of damages are guided generally by the usual rules regarding foreseeability, causation and remoteness of damage, but in most cases, consequential loss will fail these tests—especially foreseeability—and are unlikely to be recoverable in an ordinary action for breach of contract, at least in the absence of an indemnity.
Indemnities
Pay particular attention to indemnities. Unless well-crafted — and most are not — indemnities are oddly susceptible to consequential loss bother, because they do not depend on a breach of contract for payment, and so the usual rules of remoteness and foreseeability do not apply. Courts are likely to treat badly constructed indemnities rather like contractual breaches,[1] but where an indemnity is very wide (as many are) it is not controversial to exclude consequential and indirect losses from its scope. If your counterparty baulks at this, she’s either a bit of a dick or — more likely — she doesn’t really understand indemnities. (Many lawyers don’t.)
In any case trying to recover consequential losses for breach of contract through sneaky indemnities is dick behaviour, basically, and another reason never to agree indemnities for breach of contract.
There is more — much more — on this topic at the indemnities article.
When consequential losses are foreseeable: stock lending
Sometimes consequential losses are within the parties’ reasonable contemplation, easy enough to calculate, and it is fair enough to include them. Such as, upon a failure to settle a stock loan. The failure to make the onward delivery might incur a buy-in cost from the onward recipient.
When consequential losses is alls you got: confidentiality agreements
The accursed NDA where, if you can really claim contractual damages[2] at all, they are all likely to consequential and speculative in nature.
The chap who had your client list and used it to win business you aspired to win yourself has, at worst, caused you a consequential loss: the loss of profits from that business. But more likely, he has not “caused” your loss at all: you have, through your crappy product. Look, I’m just the messenger, okay?
See also
References
- ↑ But might not — so why take that risk?
- ↑ Damages arising from misuse of intellectual property aren’t at their core, contractual damages, because intellectual property rights don’t arise by contract — well, not under a confi at any rate.