Attorney General v Blake
In exceptional cases a claimant can recover the profits made by the defendant from a breach of contract.
Facts
George Blake joined the Secret Intelligence Service in 1944 and signed an undertaking not to disclose any official information gained through his work, during or after his employment. From 1951 he worked as an agent for the Soviet Union, disclosing secret information. In 1961 he was convicted and sentenced to 42 years' imprisonment, but in 1966 he escaped from prison and fled to Moscow. In 1989 he wrote his autobiography, No Other Choice, which included information obtained during his work, and a publisher agreed to pay him a substantial advance. By then, the information was no longer confidential. The Crown sought to prevent Blake from receiving the money owed to him by the publisher.
Legal principle
The House of Lords held that the Crown was entitled to an account of the profits Blake had made from his breach of his undertaking not to disclose information. Lord Nicholls said that, in exceptional cases, where the ordinary remedies of damages, specific performance and injunctions are inadequate, the court may order the defendant to account for the profits made from a breach of contract. A useful general guide is whether the claimant had a legitimate interest in preventing the defendant's profit making activity and depriving him of his profit. The Crown had such an interest, because of the need for complete confidence in members of the intelligence services, and the case was exceptional.
Related cases on remedies
- Addis v Gramophone Co Ltd [1909] AC 488
- Anglia Television Ltd v Reed [1972] 1 QB 60
- British Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co Ltd v Underground Electric Railways Co of London Ltd [1912] AC 673
- Cavendish Square Holding BV v Makdessi; ParkingEye Ltd v Beavis [2015] UKSC 67, [2016] AC 1172
- Co-operative Insurance Society Ltd v Argyll Stores (Holdings) Ltd [1998] AC 1
- Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v New Garage and Motor Co Ltd [1915] AC 79
- Farley v Skinner [2001] UKHL 49, [2002] 2 AC 732
- Golden Strait Corp v Nippon Yusen Kubishika Kaisha (The Golden Victory) [2007] UKHL 12, [2007] 2 AC 353
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