Distinctive Wholesale Litd v Clayton Horsnell Ltd & Ors
Decision date: 18 December 2018
Neutral citation: [2018] EWHC 3742 (IPEC)
Overall AI summary confidence: high
Short overview
This short overview is intended to summarise the case, issues and outcome so far as they are supported by the judgment.
AI confidence in this short overview: high
Distinctive Wholesale Ltd (DWL) sued retailer defendants for alleged unauthorised use of its product images and database; Clayton brought third-party claims against Essential (and Mr Nezard) for procuring Clayton’s breach of contract with DWL and for unlawful interference. The court held as a matter of law that Clayton could not maintain a procurement of breach claim based on procurement of its own breach, and consequently the related unlawful interference claim (which depended on the procurement allegation) had no real prospect of success and was struck out. The court also rejected a procedural objection that Part 24 timetable non‑compliance prevented determination, deciding pure points of law could be decided summarily.
Ratio decidendi
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AI confidence in this ratio decidendi summary: high
A claimant cannot sustain an action for procuring breach of contract where the alleged breach is the claimant’s own breach induced by the third party; if an unlawful interference claim depends solely on such an unsustainable procurement allegation, it too fails.
Obiter dicta
This summary is intended to identify obiter dicta, meaning observations made by the way that were not necessary to deciding the case and are not binding.
AI confidence in this obiter dicta summary: medium
The judge observed that a party cannot expand the cause of action for procurement of breach by arguing it is immaterial which contracting party committed the breach. The court also indicated that pure questions of law not requiring additional evidence may be decided summarily under CPR 3.4(2) despite alleged non‑compliance with Part 24 timetables.
Warning
The transcript contains repetition and some transcription noise (garbled citations). The provided transcript extracts contain repetition and some transcription noise.