Brooke Homes (Bicester) Ltd v Portfolio Property Partners Ltd [2021] EWHC 3015 (Ch) Summary A recent decision in the High Court clarified both the meanings of ‘good faith’ and ‘reasonable endeavours’, helping pave the way forward for businesses when entering into contracts. The case also emphasises that parties will be bound by any pre-agreements made […]

Hazell v Hammersmith & Fulham London Borough Council [1992] 2 A.C. 1 Summary A local council – Hammersmith and Fulham LBC – carried out substantial speculative transactions over a number of years, under the guise of “debt management”. When interest rates were set to rise and the local council were going to lose a lot […]

Credit Suisse International v Stichting Vestia Groep [2014] EWHC 3103 (Comm) Summary Credit Suisse International claimed approximately €83 million as an Early Termination Amount from Stichting Vestia Groep, a Dutch social housing association based in Rotterdam, as money due under an ISDA 2002 Master Agreement and CSA. The swap transactions were held as ultra vires, […]

A summary of the recent case High Court case of Sibner Capital Limited v Neil David Martin Jarvis & Suzanne Jane Hughes [2022] EWHC 3273 (Ch) (link to judgment): What takes precedence between a general good faith clause and a clause allowing absolute discretion in certain actions? The High Court has ruled that, in a […]

ABC Electrification v Ltd v Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd [2020] EWCA Civ 1645 Introduction One of the most important tasks of any commercial contract is to answer the question “how can it all go wrong?”  In other words, what do we mean when we talk about the ‘default’ of one or both of the parties?  […]

Lehman Brothers International (Europe) v ExxonMobil Financial Services BV [2016] EWHC 2699 (Comm) Whilst many know of the infamous collapse of Lehman Brothers, not many are aware of how the fallout from this has helped to clarify important business terms. In a recent dispute between Lehman Brothers (Lehman) and ExxonMobil (Exxon), the High Court was […]

Property Alliance Group Ltd (“PAG”) v Royal Bank of Scotland plc (“RBS”) [2018] EWCA Civ 355. On 2 March 2018, the Court of Appeal nailed down the coffin lid on the first LIBOR-related swaps miss-selling case, between Property Alliance Group and the Royal Bank of Scotland. PAG’s leave to appeal was dismissed. Initial Case PAG’s […]

Dexia Crediop SPA v Comune di Prato [2017] EWCA Civ 428, and subsequent UKSC refusal of leave to appeal On 18 January  the Supreme Court closed the curtain on the long-running Dexia Crediop SpA v Comune di Prato saga. The Court refused leave for the municipality (Prato) to appeal the 15 June 2017 Court of […]

Wood v Capita Insurance Services Ltd [2017] UKSC 24 Introduction Ambiguity in contracts is not unheard of. In the recent case of Wood v Capita Insurance Services Limited[1], we found the opportunity to have a closer look at the Supreme Court’s guidance on contractual interpretation. The exercise was so instructive that we thought we would […]