Secret profit

The basic principles of contract →Go uptown Formation: capacity and authority · representation · misrepresentation · offer · acceptance · consideration · intention to create legal relations · agreement to agree · privity of contract oral vs written contract · principal · agent Interpretation and change: governing law · mistake · implied term · amendment · assignment · novation Performance: force majeure · promise · waiver · warranty · covenant · sovereign immunity · illegality · severability · good faith · commercially reasonable manner · commercial imperative · indemnity · guarantee Breach: breach · repudiation · causation · remoteness of damage · direct loss · consequential loss · foreseeability · damages · contractual negligence · process agent Remedies: damages · adequacy of damages ·equitable remedies · injunction · specific performance · limited recourse · rescission · estoppel · concurrent liability Not contracts: Restitution — quasi-contract — quasi-agency Index: Click ᐅ to expand: Contract Tort Restitution Tell me more Sign up for our newsletter — or just get in touch: for ½ a weekly 🍺 you get to consult JC. Ask about it here.

When an agent deals with a counterparty on its principal’s behalf, the agent must account for the transaction proceeds to the principal. The agent cannot make a secret profit from the principal’s assets.

For example, say I gave you £50 to run up to the super Black Gull Bookshop in East Finchley to buy a copy of the gorgeous Folio Society edition of Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions which I saw in the window for £50.

If, when you get there, the book is on special, and you manage to buy it for £30, you don’t get to keep the £20 change, even though I was quite prepared to pay £50 for the book. You must account to me for the £20. Seems obvious, right?

See also

• Agency