British Leyland Exports v Brittain Manufacturing

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judgment Date: 01 January 1982
• Date: 01 January 1982
• Docket Number: [1976 No. 169]
• Court: High Court

(H.C.)

British Leyland Exports

and

Brittain Manufacturing

Exclusion clause - Effect - Agreement between manufacturer and importer for supply of motor cars and components -Breach of manufacturer's primary obligation to supply vehicles - Clause excluding importer's claim to damages - Agreement made in context of commitments made by parties to the Government - Whether construction of agreement affected - Agreement not repudiated by importer.

By an agreement dated the 9th May, 1966, the plaintiffs gave the first defendants the exclusive right to sell to traders in Ireland motor cars manufactured by the plaintiffs in England, and the plaintiffs were bound to deliver to the first defendants from time to time the number of vehicles specified in the agreement. Most of the vehicles supplied to the first defendants pursuant to that agreement were delivered in the form of kits consisting of the component parts of complete vehicles. Having assembled complete vehicles from the kits, the first defendants then sold vehicles to the traders in Ireland. Clause 25(b) of that agreement provided that the plaintiffs would endeavour to supply to the first defendant in accordance with their requirements the vehicles ordered by them, but that the plaintiffs "shall not be liable for any failure, delay or error in delivery, or any consequential loss arising therefrom, howsoever caused." It was a term of the agreement that it should be construed in accordance with English law. In the year 1967 the plaintiffs, the first defendants and representatives of the Irish Government had discussions about arrangements for the continuation of the car-assembly business in Ireland and statements were then made to such representatives by the plaintiffs and by the first defendants respectively about their intentions with regard to the continuance of that business at a specified level of production in the years ahead. The discussions terminated in October, 1967, when a document entitled "Heads of an Arrangement" was prepared, but not signed, by the parties to the discussions. When the plaintiffs sued the defendants in the High Court for over a million pounds on foot of several bills of exchange and for the sum of £146,396, being...