Hadley v Baxendale

Hadley & Anor v Baxendale & Ors
CourtExchequer Court
Decided23 February 1854
Citations[1854] EWHC J70, (1854) 156 ER 145, 9 ExCh 341, (1854) 23 LJ Ex 179, 18 Jur 358, [1843-60] All ER Rep 461
TranscriptAbridged judgment on bailii.org
Court membership
Judges sittingParke B, Alderson B, Platt B and Martin B
Keywords
Breach of contract, remoteness

Hadley & Anor v Baxendale & Ors [1854] EWHC J70 is a leading English contract law case. It sets the leading rule to determine consequential damages from a breach of contract: a breaching party is liable for all losses that the contracting parties should have foreseen. However, if the other party has special knowledge that the party-in-breach does not, the breaching party is only liable for the losses that he could have foreseen on the information available to them.