Wiseman v Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd

Damages for breach of a passenger contract are principally confined to financial loss caused by the breach and proved by the claimant. Expenses incurred by a third party, or losses too remote from the contractual breach, are not recoverable merely because the claimant reimbursed them. Compensation for injury to reputation, hurt feelings and ordinary distress is generally unavailable in contract, subject to narrow exceptions. Mental suffering may be recoverable where it is directly related to physical inconvenience or discomfort, or where a breakdown in health was a not unlikely consequence within the parties’ contemplation. A supervening event is not compensable where the breach was only a necessary condition and not the effective cause of the loss.

Dr Raphael Wiseman claimed damages from Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd after it admitted failing to carry him on his booked return flight from Nigeria to England. He alleged financial expenses, sums connected with his former fiancée and travelling companions, humiliation, reputational injury, mental trauma and consequences of a robbery occurring during his enforced stay.

The only issue for determination was the amount of recoverable compensation. The court considered contractual remoteness, causation and the limits on damages for distress and other non-pecuniary loss.

1. Recoverable expenses. The claimant bore the burden of proving that each head of loss was legally recoverable and establishing its amount. Reasonable hotel, restaurant, taxi, postage and telephone expenses incurred during the enforced stay were recoverable. The award for those personal expenses was £2,147.24.
2. Third-party and consequential expenses. Expenses incurred by the claimant’s former fiancée were not recoverable. She had no contractual relationship with the defendant, and her expenses did not sufficiently flow from the breach; in any event, they were too remote. The same applied to expenses connected with the claimant’s travelling companions.
3. Non-pecuniary loss. Damages for injury to reputation, hurt feelings and ordinary mental distress were unavailable for this contract, absent exceptional circumstances. The qualification permitting recovery for mental suffering directly related to physical inconvenience or discomfort did not apply because no such physical inconvenience or discomfort was established.
4. Breakdown in health. Nervous shock or anxiety amounting to a breakdown in health may in principle be recoverable where, when the contract was made, such a breakdown would have been a not unlikely consequence of breach. That threshold was not met. The evidence also did not permit a reliable allocation of the claimant’s sleeplessness between the breach and other events.
5. Supervening robbery. The robbery was a supervening event. The failure to carry the claimant was, at most, a causa sine qua non and not the causa causans of the attack. Its consequences were therefore not recoverable as contractual damages.
6. Order. Judgment was given for the claimant for £2,147.24, with interest at 8 per cent per annum.