Shanklin Pier Ltd v Detel Products Ltd
A promise made in return for a party entering into a contract with someone else can be enforced as a collateral contract.
Facts
Shanklin Pier, the owners of a pier on the Isle of Wight, employed contractors to repaint it. Detel, a paint manufacturer, told the pier owners that its paint would last for seven years. Relying on this, the pier owners instructed the contractors to buy and use Detel's paint. The contractors bought the paint from Detel, but it lasted only about three months.
Legal principle
McNair J held that the pier owners could recover damages from Detel. Although the contract to sell the paint was between Detel and the contractors, there was a collateral contract between Detel and the pier owners: Detel warranted that the paint would last seven years, and in return the pier owners caused their contractors to buy Detel's paint, which was good consideration. The collateral contract is one way of avoiding the strictness of the privity rule.
Related cases on privity of contract
- Alfred McAlpine Construction Ltd v Panatown Ltd [2001] 1 AC 518
- Avraamides v Colwill [2006] EWCA Civ 1533
- Beswick v Beswick [1968] AC 58
- Chudley v Clydesdale Bank plc [2019] EWCA Civ 344, [2020] QB 284
- Darlington Borough Council v Wiltshier Northern Ltd [1995] 1 WLR 68
- Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v Selfridge & Co Ltd [1915] AC 847
- Jackson v Horizon Holidays Ltd [1975] 1 WLR 1468
- Laemthong International Lines Co Ltd v Artis (The Laemthong Glory) (No 2) [2005] EWCA Civ 519, [2005] 1 Lloyd's Rep 688
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