Contracts Commons^™

Mark Tink And Others V. Lumwana Mining Company Limited Caz Appeal No. 41/2021, Chanda Chungu

SAIPAR Case Review

The decision in Mark Tink and Others v. Lumwana Mining Company Limited is an important decision because it clarifies and restates that law that a valid reason, that is substantiated is required when an employer initiates termination of the contract of employment.

This article critiques the approach of the Court of Appeal as it relates to the award of damages. This article seeks to provide clarity as it relates to the award of damages, particularly the way is granted and justified. It is suggested that when the opportunity arises either the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court should revise …

Finance Bank And Rajan Mahtani V Simataa Simataa Scz Appeal No. 11/2017, Chanda Chungu

SAIPAR Case Review

The employer settled an employment dispute with its former employee out of court. They bound their former employee to a settlement agreement that he would not speak badly of the employer or testify against them in future. He subsequently testified against his former employer and the employer sued for a refund of the settlement amount.

The court was of the view that only nominal damages (equivalent to K500) would be awarded merely to show that there had been a breach of the agreement not to testify. However, the amount was limited to a small sum of nominal damages as loss …

Zambia Breweries Plc V. Betternow Family Limited Selected Judgment No. 48 Of 2016, Chanda Chungu

SAIPAR Case Review

This matter dealt with a distributorship contract between Zambia Breweries and Betternow Family Limited. Betternow paid K100, 000 as a pre-condition to trading Zambia Breweries’ products – but after three (3) months of trading, Zambia Breweries terminated the supply of its products to Betternow Family Limited.

In this case, the contract provided that the contract can be terminated with one month’s notice. The contract was cancelled by Zambia Breweries and Betternow Family Limited sued for breach of contract. The trial court awarded damages equivalent to the unserved or remaining period of the contract.

The Supreme Court held that: Any damages …

Apple V. Pepper: Rationalizing Antitrust’S Indirect Purchaser Rule, Herbert J. Hovenkamp

All Faculty Scholarship

In Apple v. Pepper the Supreme Court held that consumers who allegedly paid too much for apps sold on Apple’s iStore could sue Apple for antitrust damages because they were “direct purchasers.” The decision reflects some bizarre complexities that have resulted from the Supreme Court’s 1977 decision in Illinois Brick, which held that only direct purchasers could sue for overcharge injuries under the federal antitrust laws. The indirect purchaser rule was problematic from the beginning. First, it was plainly inconsistent with the antitrust damages statute, which gives an action to “any person who shall be injured in his business …

Do Liquidated Damages Encourage Breach? A Psychological Experiment, Tess Wilkinson-Ryan

All Faculty Scholarship

This Article offers experimental evidence that parties are more willing to exploit efficient-breach opportunities when the contract in question includes a liquidated-damages clause. Economists claim that the theory of efficient breach allows us to predict when parties will choose to breach a contract if the legal remedy for breach is expectation damages. However, the economic assumption of rational wealth-maximizing actors fails to capture important, shared, nonmonetary values and incentives that shape behavior in predictable ways. When interpersonal obligations are informal or underspecified, people act in accordance with shared community norms, like the moral norm of keeping promises. However, when sanctions …

Price Discrimination With Contract Terms: The Lost Volume Problem, Barry E. Adler, Alan Schwartz

ExpressO

In a common commercial pattern, the seller of a standard product contracts with one buyer and then sells to another at the contract price after the initial buyer breaches. Sellers argue, and courts largely agree, that the seller could have served the contract buyer as well as the later buyer; hence, the seller is entitled to retain a down payment to the extent of, or sue to recover, the profit – price less cost – that it would have realized on the initial sale had that sale been completed. Some courts and many scholars disagree, arguing that resale of the …

Exchange Loss Damages And The Uniform Foreign-Money Claims Act: The Emperor Hasn't All His Clothes, Ronald A. Brand

Articles

In 1989, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws approved a new Uniform Foreign-Money Claims Act. This Act is designed to change and clarify the law regarding judgments on obligations denominated in a foreign currency. It does so by recognizing that old rules preventing judgment in a foreign currency - developed in times of a strong dollar - are inappropriate. Unfortunately, in seeking fairness for plaintiffs when the U.S. dollar is weak, the Act replaces rigid old rules with stiff new rules that fail to address the basic issue of appropriate damages for exchange rate losses. While the …

Breach Of Contract, Damage Measures, And Economic Efficiency, Robert L. Birmingham

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.