Browsing by Author "Hutchinson, Dale"

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    Comparative analysis of precontractual liability in cases of failed negotiations
    (1999) Elsner, Kirsten; Hutchinson, Dale
    There are a number of circumstances in which parties, that enter into negotiations to conclude a contract, incur losses because the anticipated contract does not materialise. The parties could for example think that they concluded a contract, which is, however, void or an offeror sends together with his offer goods to a long known customer, wrongfully trusting that a contract will come about. Furthermore, the parties could have entered into lengthy negotiations about a costly project which do for some reason not ripen into a contractual agreement. In all these situations the parties might have made expenses with regard to the prospective contract that are now lost without any reward in return.
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    Liability for negligent misstatement inducing a contract in South Africa and Germany
    (1999) von Auer, B I; Hutchinson, Dale
    The law in the area of negligent misrepresentation has undergone major changes during this century, in the legal systems of both South Africa and Germany. Which remedies does one have if financial loss is caused because another made a false statement. The legal system in South Africa stands in the tradition of Roman, Roman-- Dutch and English law, while Germany derived its civil law from Roman principles. Neither of these historical legal backgrounds provided a complete answer to the question posed above, and if there were answers, they have been subjected to many changes and uncertainties due to the growing complexity of cases. The complexity is increased by the fact that misrepresentation overlaps both the law of contract as well as delict and this challenges the distinction between the two of them. Through the development of given legal principles, it is now an established rule in South · African and German law that an action exists for the recovery of damages which were caused by negligent misrepresentation in the pre-contractual sphere. The object of this dissertation is to depict the development of this remedy and to compare the adequacy and precedence of the existing rule in South Africa and Germany.
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    Sentimental damages in English contract law : a critical analysis
    (2012) Emurwon, Brian Kwame; Hutchinson, Dale
    This dissertation's primary hypothesis is that the angst-spawning confusion plaguing this area of law stems from a feckless amalgamation of parallel, if not competing, notions of loss. Let me explain. When a promisee seeks judicial relief for breach, the court habitually applies two deeply-ingrained presumptions of fact whose status has been unconsciously elevated to rules of law.10 These judicial presumptions are that: 1. The promisee's concern is loss of performance and not loss of promise; and (After confining the matter to loss of performance) 2. The promisee's performance interest is essentially pecuniary value (profit) and not non-pecuniary value (utility). The Addis case illustrates the sad result of focusing on performance in a situation where the predominant loss caused by breach is promissory in character (Presumption 1). Farley, on the other hand, promotes the commercial agenda by perpetuating the notion that financial loss is the premier interest of contract as law (Presumption 2). This dissertation tests the above hypothesis by evaluating the prohibition on mental distress damages.