The value of making notes when hit by breach of contract

The importance of making contemporaneous notes when affected by a breach of contract has been highlighted by a recent High Court ruling which reduced a company’s compensation because it had failed to keep written records.

The case involved a commercial printing firm called Bridge UK which wanted to install a new printing press. It contracted Abbey Pynford to prepare the necessary foundation. Later, when the company installing the printing press examined the foundation, it decided that it wasn’t satisfactory and remedial work had to be carried out.

Abbey did this successfully but it meant the press was not ready to be used until nine days after the agreed completion date. This affected Bridge’s business so it took legal action to recover its losses and to cover the cost of management time in dealing with the problems caused by the breach of contract.

Bridge hadn’t made contemporaneous notes about the time its managers devoted to the printing press and so an estimate had to be made retrospectively.

The court accepted the retrospective record but Mr Justice Ramsey said: “It must be borne in mind that such an assessment is an approximation of the hours spent and may over-estimate or under-estimate the actual time which would have been recorded at the time.”

He therefore reduced the damages that would have been paid had a contemporaneous record been kept by 20%.
If your business finds itself in this situation and needs to recover costs for lost business/management hours please contact Faizal Essat.