Ratio Decidendi
In exceptional circumstances, the court may award an account of profits for breach of contract — ordering the contract-breaker to pay over the profits made from the breach — even though the innocent party has suffered no financial loss. This remedy is available where the claimant has a legitimate interest in preventing the defendant from profiting from the breach that cannot be adequately protected by damages, specific performance, or injunction.
তথ্য
George Blake was a member of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) who was convicted of spying for the Soviet Union. He escaped from prison and fled to Moscow. In breach of his undertaking under the Official Secrets Act not to divulge information obtained during his service, he wrote and published his autobiography. The Crown sought to recover the profits of publication.
রায়ের সারসংক্ষেপ
The House of Lords held that, in exceptional cases, the court may order an account of profits for breach of contract. Lord Nicholls acknowledged that the normal remedy for breach of contract is compensatory damages, but held that where the claimant has a legitimate interest in depriving the defendant of profits made from the breach, and other remedies are inadequate, the court may make such an award. On the facts, the undertaking given by Blake was the equivalent of a contractual obligation, and the Crown's interest in maintaining the integrity of the secret intelligence service justified the exceptional remedy.
মূল উদ্ধৃতি
"An account of profits will be appropriate only in exceptional circumstances. No fixed rules can be prescribed. The court will have regard to all the circumstances, including the subject matter of the contract, the purpose of the contractual provision which has been breached, the circumstances in which the breach occurred, the consequences of the breach, and the circumstances in which the remedy is being sought."
— Lord Nicholls
পরবর্তী ব্যবহার
Applied cautiously in subsequent cases. In Experience Hendrix LLC v PPX Enterprises [2003], the Court of Appeal awarded a lesser remedy (Wrotham Park damages) rather than a full account of profits.