✍ Scribed by Andrew Stokes
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
How much can you really rely on an exclusion or limitation of liability clause? If the clause is one of your standard terms and has not been negotiated by the contracting parties it will probably depend on whether a Court thinks your clause is reasonable.The fact that other parts of the contract have been negotiated over may not matter at all. S St t A Al lb ba an ns s C Ci it ty y C Co ou un nc ci il l v v I In nt te er rn na at ti io on na al l C Co om mp pu ut te er rs s L Li im mi it te ed d [1995] FSR 686 alerted contracting parties to the fact that if they agreed terms which were effectively an untouched version of one party's standard terms, any exclusion clause in the contract might be subject to a reasonableness test under the Unfair Contract Terms Act 1977 (UCTA).The recent and as yet unreported decision of S So ou ut th h W We es st t W Wa at te er r v v I In nt te er rn na at ti io on na al l C Co om mp pu ut te er rs s L Li im mi it te ed d takes this idea a step further. The case provides a commentary on how the Courts might apply the St Albans case and is particularly useful because the technical issues in dispute were relatively clear cut, allowing the trial judge to make a clear apportionment of blame. Note that although both of these ICL cases are in the IT sector, they apply to any contractual relationship where a party seeks to limit or exclude liability for breach of contract, or otherwise partially or entirely fails to perform the obligations originally agreed under the contract.
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