Tag: Tort
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Illegitimate pressure in economic duress
[Posted by Shantanu Naravane] Traditionally, duress rendered a contract voidable only if it was physical duress (which involved a threat to the person or belongings of an individual), but following the decision of the Privy Council in Pao On v Lau Yiu Long, the concept of economic duress was also recognised. It is now fairly…
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The Court of Appeal on the illegality defence
[Posted by Shantanu Naravane] The role of illegality as a defence to a claim for damages has always been the subject of much debate. There are two principal rationales that can be proposed for illegality being a defence: (a) that the claimant cannot be allowed to rely on his illegal conduct (reliance-based rationale); and (b)…
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Court of Appeal on the Award of Damages
[Posted by Shantanu Naravane] A recent decision of the UK Court of Appeal revisits the issue of alternative remedies, one on which there has been significant academic debate. An earlier post discussed the issue of concurrent liability in contract and tort, where the Court of Appeal had clarified some doubts in the area. However, the…
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Parent Company’s duty to employees of its Subsidiary
[Posted by Mihir Naniwadekar] /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:””; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} In an interesting judgment delivered earlier this month, Chandler v. Cape Plc. [2011] EWHC 951 (dt. 14/4/2011), it has been held that a parent company owes…
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Court of Appeal on Concurrent Liability
[Posted by Shantanu Naravane] Earlier this year, the UK Court of Appeal was called on to consider an important question dealing with concurrent liability in contract and tort. The facts in Robinson v. Jones involved the defective construction of a house by a builder, which caused economic loss to the purchaser. However, the contractual remedy…
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Exclusion of Jurisdiction of Civil Courts under the SEBI Act
[Posted by Mihir Naniwadekar] Legally India has made available certain expert witness statements filed before US Courts in the class action litigation concerning Satyam, which was recently settled. One of the witness statements, by Mr. Sandeep Parekh, makes an interesting point; but I am not entirely sure of the tenability in law of that point. Mr.…
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The Red Jaguar: Apparent Authority and Tortious Liability
[Posted by V. Niranjan] Ironically, many significant propositions in private law have been advanced in the course of a court’s attempt to unravel a transaction or scheme engineered by a rogue with considerable ingenuity – so much so that judges not infrequently ask the question “which of two innocent parties should bear the loss caused…