Johnson_v_Agnew
Johnson v Agnew [1980] AC 367 is a landmark English contract law case on the date for assessing damages. Lord Wilberforce decided that the date appropriate is the date of breach, or when a contracting party could reasonably be aware of a breach.
Five major principles it laid down were,
- termination for breach of contract is "prospective", not "retrospective"; i.e. repudiatory breach of contract discharges both parties from future performance of their contractual obligations, but leaves their accrued rights intact (and themselves open to damages)
- a claimant for specific performance does not forfeit his right to terminate the contract by accepting a defendant's repudiatory breach
- when a specific performance decree is made, a court oversees performance, and it has the sole jurisdiction to determine whether that obligation can be discharged
- common law damages are assessed at the date of the breach of the contract, though the court may fix another date if justice requires
- the same principles for awarding common law damages apply to awarding equitable damages under s 50 Supreme Court Act 1981