White & Carter (Councils) Ltd v McGregor [1961] UKHL 5 House of Lords

The claimant supplied bins to the Local Authority and were allowed to display adverts on these bins. The defendant owned a garage. The defendant's sales manager entered a contract with the claimant for them to place adverts on the bins for a period of 3 years. The agreed price was payable by three annual instalments and if one of the payments was late the whole price became immediately due. The defendant had not authorised the sales manager to enter the contract and phoned the claimant on the same day as the contract had been made telling them that he did not want the advertising. The claimant ignored the defendant's communication and arranged for the advertising plates to be made up and placed on the bins. The defendant refused to pay the first instalment and the claimant submitted a bill for the full three years of advertising.

Held:

The House of Lords held that the claimant was not obliged to accept the breach of contract and could continue with the contract. They were thus entitled to full payment for the three years advertising.

NB this case seems to ignore the general rule of the duty to mitigate loss applicable to claims for damages.

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Contract law