Introduction
A recent High Court case has provided reassurance that the courts will continue to respect and enforce clearly drafted exclusion and limitation of liability clauses, even broad ones, unless to do so would have the effect of excluding all liability for all breach or would reduce one party s obligations to a mere declaration of intent.
On 30 March 2021, in
Mott MacDonald Ltd v Trant Engineering Ltd, the High Court held that an exclusion or limitation of liability clause should be construed by reference to the normal principles of contractual construction, even where it purports to exclude or limit liability for deliberate and repudiatory breaches. Further, there should be no presumption that a party cannot rely on such a clause in respect of deliberate or repudiatory breaches. The High Court also held that no particular form of words or level of language is required to exclude or limit liability for such breaches; the wording just has to be clear.