Valilas v Januzaj
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
- LADY JUSTICE ARDEN
- LORD JUSTICE FLOYD
Areas of Law
- Contract Law
- Civil Procedure
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The case involves two dentists disputing termination of an oral contract where one party had fallen behind in payments due to stress affecting his work obligations. The lower court ruled that the termination was wrongful, with damages to be assessed. The appeal upheld this decision, emphasizing that the payment delays did not amount to a repudiatory breach and the Claimant still intended to fulfill his obligations.
Judgment
Lord Justice Underhill :
INTRODUCTION
This is an appeal, brought with the permission of Beatson LJ, against a decision of His Honour Judge Hooper QC, sitting in the Worcester County Court. The Appellant, the Defendant below, is represented by Mr Simon Clegg and the Respondent, the Claimant below, by Mr Jonathan Cohen. Both counsel also appeared before the Judge.
THE FACTS
The primary facts are not in issue and can be stated fairly shortly.
Both parties are dentists. The Defendant was the principal of a practice in Droitwich Spa – the Droitwich Spa Dental Practice (“DSDP” for short). The dentists who practised at DSDP included the Claimant. He was not an employee or a partner of the Defendant. He practised under an oral agreement which was described by the Judge as “the facilities contract”. In essence, the arrangement was that in return for the right to make use of the premises and equipment and the services of the dental nurses and other staff he would pay the Defendant each month 50% of his receipts.
The great majority of the Claimant’s earnings from his practice at DSDP came from his contract with the local Primary Care Trust (“the PCT”). He was contracted to carry out a specified number of “Units of Dental Activity” (“UDAs”) for NHS patients over a year running from April to March, for a fixed price per unit. There was a dispute, which the Judge did not find it necessary to resolve, as to both the number and the price of the UDAs required under the contract. The argument proceeded before us on the basis that the total annual sum payable by the PCT was, in round figures, £195,200. That amount was paid, in advance, in equal monthly instalments of some £16,260. The greater part of each instalment was paid direct to the Claimant himself, though part (in respect of so-called “non-exempt patients”) was paid, for essentially administrative reasons, through DSDP: the amounts that he received himself seem to have been about £12,000 per month.
It is an important feature of the case that the work under the PCT contract did not have to be spread evenly through the year; but if the Claimant did not achieve the full number of units by the end of the year he was obliged to refund the consequent overpayment to the PCT. It is the Claimant’s case that in that event the Defendant would in turn be obliged to refund to him the equivalent proportion of what had been received in monthly payments during the year. I will assume that that is correct (though see