Default (law)

In law, a default is the failure to do something required by law or to comply with a contractual obligation. Legal obligations can arise when a response or appearance is required in legal proceedings, after taking out a loan, or as agreed in a contract; failure to carry them out puts one in defaults of the obligations.

The concept of a "deliberate default" was considered in a UK legal case determined in 2010, De Beers UK Ltd. v Atos Origin It Services UK Ltd., where a contract had referred to this term. Edwards-Stuart J described "deliberate default" as meaning, in his view,

a default that is deliberate, in the sense that the person committing the relevant act knew that it was a default (i.e. in this case a breach of contract). I consider that it does not extend to recklessness and is therefore narrower than wilful misconduct (although the latter will embrace deliberate default).[1]

Before the De Beers case there was little judicial guidance on the meaning of "deliberate default".[2]

The same term ("deliberate defaulters") has been used by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) in the UK to describe "people who deliberately get their tax affairs wrong".[3]

  1. ^ England and Wales High Court (Technology and Construction Court), De Beers UK Ltd v Atos Origin It Services UK Ltd, (2010) EWHC 3276 (TCC) (16 December 2010)
  2. ^ Parris, E., De Beers v Atos Origin: lessons from a failing technology project, FieldFisher, published 15 April 2011, accessed 5 July 2021
  3. ^ This article contains OGL licensed text This article incorporates text published under the British Open Government Licence: HMRC, Policy paper: HMRC issue briefing: supporting organisations to comply with changes to the off-payroll working rules (IR35), published 15 February 2021, accessed 24 June 2021