Cases - Oceanbulk Shipping & Trading SA v TMT Asia Ltd & Ors

Record details

Name

Oceanbulk Shipping & Trading SA v TMT Asia Ltd & Ors

Date

[2010]

Citation

UKSC 44

Keywords

Without prejudice - negotiations - settlement agreement

Summary

The parties had been negotiating on a without prejudice basis to resolve a dispute between them. Those negotiations were successful and a settlement agreement was drawn up and agreed by both parties. A subsequent dispute arose as to the interpretation of that settlement agreement and one of the parties wished to refer to the without prejudice correspondence to demonstrate the intentions of the parties.

The without prejudice correspondence in support of representations is in principle admissible as part of the factual matrix or surrounding circumstances on the true construction of the agreement.

The case report contains a very useful summary by the UK Supreme Court of the various occasions on which without prejudice correspondence may be admissible as evidence. The parties can generally trust that without prejudice correspondence will generally not be admissible in the principal dispute but they must keep in mind that the correspondence may be admissible in other disputes.