Bank Notes

A - Account

15/5/24

LIFESTYLE EQUITIES CV v AHMED [2024] UKSC 17

Considers when company directors can be liable for torts committed by the company (here trade mark infringement). The directors had not committed any tort in their own right as they only acted on behalf of the company, but there is no special principle that directors acting as such cannot be liable in tort [33]. The rule in Said v Butt (1920) (agent not liable for procuring breach of contract with principal) applies if an agent acting with authority procures a breach pf contract by the principal [54]. This does not prevent an agent being jointly liable with the principal for procuring or assisting the principal to commit a tort [61]. A person who knowingly procures another to commit an actionable wrong is jointly liable in tort with that other for the wrong [135]. A person who assists another to commit a tort is jointly liable for the tort if the assistance is more than trivial and is given pursuant to a common design between the parties [136]. The person procuring or assisting must know (or have blind eye knowledge of) the essential facts which make the act wrongful. The defendants did not have that knowledge [143]. Had they done so, an account of profits could have been ordered for the profits they (rather than the company) had made from the wrongful conduct [169] but on the facts, they had not made any such profits.

19/12/14

BARNETT v CREGGY [2014] EWHC 3080 (Ch)

Claim for an account against a solicitor and defence of limitation.