Victoria Laundry v Newman Industries [1949] 2 KB 528

Asquith LJ

• Certain propositions of law are applicable to this case:

  1. That the law aims to put P in a position akin to that which he would have been in had there been no breach;

  2. That the harm caused by D has to be “reasonably foreseeable” i.e. not too remote, which is determined by the knowledge of the parties at the time of the breach;

  3. D is imputed to have common knowledge of the ordinary course of things (e.g. that a laundry company needs a boiler), whether they in fact know this or not;

  4. So long as the loss caused by the breach can be reasonably foreseen as a “serious possibility” or a “real danger” or “on the cards” then D can be liable: actual knowledge is not needed.

• In this case D did, or ought to have known that the laundry needed the boilers for its business and it needed them ASAP. Also the risk of causing loss was reasonably foreseeable.

• Thus D is liable. 

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