DamagesContract - termination without cause - supervening insolvency of innocent party not affecting assessment of damagesChiemguaer Membran Und Zeltbau GmbH v The New Millennium Experience Company Ltd: ChD (Geoffrey Vos, QC, sitting as a deputy High Court judge): 15 December 2000The claimant was awarded a contract to build and install a roof for the Millennium Dome.

The defendant subsequently terminated the contract without cause, in accordance with the terms of the contract.As a result of the termination the defendant became liable to pay damages for direct loss and/or damage which had been caused by its termination of the contract.The defendant argued that since the claimant had gone into liquidation after the contract had been terminated no damages should be payable since the claimant would not have been able to perform the contract in any event.John McCaughran (instructed by Herbert Smith) for the claimant.

Michael Bowsher (instructed by Norton Rose) for the defendant.Held, finding for the claimant, that a case of termination without cause in accordance with the terms of a contract was analogous to a case of repudiation and those principles were applicable; that where a contract was repudiated and the parties had agreed to pay particular heads of loss in a particular situation it was not open to one party to claim a loss was not recoverable because it was not caused by the breach; that it must be assumed that, had the repudiation not occurred, the contract would otherwise have been performed according to its terms by the innocent party; that since the claimant's insolvency was not inevitable at the date of termination it should not be taken into account when assessing damages and the claimant could recover any direct loss or damage which had been caused by the termination.