Edwards v SOGAT: CA 1971

February 19, 2017 dls 0 Damages, Employment,

References: [1971] Ch 354

Coram: Lord Denning MR, Sachs LJ, Megaw LJ
Ratio: Mr Edwards, who was black, was a skilled worker in a 100-per-cent union printshop. His
employers were compelled to dismiss him after his dues had been allowed to fall into arrear
through a union official’s neglect. He sued the union in contract. He won his action before
Buckley J, but the union appealed on quantum. The union had at a late stage agreed to readmit
him, but it was too late to put him back in his original job, and he had meanwhile found and then
lost another job. Denning MR ‘I feel that damages in a case such as this are so difficult to assess
that I would be inclined to view them somewhat broadly. I would start with the loss of earnings
which he might reasonably be expected to have suffered over two years from his expulsion. That
is what was suggested by Lord Donovan’s Committee. I would then work upwards or
downwards from that figure, according to the circumstances of the case.’ Sachs LJ: ‘The union’s
liability in damages being clear, this appeal is concerned with their measure – an important
matter in the particular circumstances. These damages, of course, sound in contract and not in
tort. It is, however, as well to record at the outset . . that certain rules laid down in Addis
touching damages for wrongful dismissal have no application to the present type of case. In other
words, whereas in the former class of cases the damages can contain no element for the difficulty
the dismissal causes to a plaintiff in getting fresh employment, the essence of the measure in the
present case is an assessment of the financial consequences of that very difficulty.’
Megaw LJ, preferred to segregate past loss from future loss. Of the element future loss: ‘Where
there are so many incalculables, it would not be right to seek to give an aura of scientific
respectability to the assessment of future damages by purporting to apply arithmetical or
actuarial formulae to the assessment, or to any individual factor on which the assessment partly
depends. One must try to assess. One cannot calculate.’