Spyrides v Marsh [2019] NSWSC 1289

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: Spyrides v Marsh [2019] NSWSC 1289 Hearing dates: 14 & 15 March 2019 Date of orders: 03 October 2019 Decision date: 03 October 2019 Jurisdiction: Equity Before: Slattery J Decision: Direction given for the parties to bring in short minutes of order to give effect to these reasons. Catchwords: CONTRACT – breach of contract – plaintiff desires to purchase a new motor vehicle – plaintiff pays the first defendant a deposit and leaves with the first defendant an older motor vehicle for sale to a third party – plaintiff claims that his arrangement with the first defendant was that the deposit and the proceeds of sale of the older vehicle were to be applied only to the purchase of the new vehicle – the first defendant disputes elements of this arrangement and says that these monies became part of the working capital of two companies that the first defendant controlled, namely the second and third defendants – the first defendant says that the plaintiff contracted with one of these companies, not with the first defendant – the deposit and the proceeds of sale of the older vehicle were not applied to the purchase of the new vehicle but were used to meet the cash flow requirements of the two companies, the second and third defendants – the defendants are unable to acquire the new vehicle for the plaintiff, who is now out of pocket and seeks to recover his loss – whether the plaintiff contracted with the first defendant or with the second and third defendants to procure the new vehicle – whether any defendant breached that contract by failing to procure the new vehicle – what are the damages for any breach of contract that is found .

TORT OF INDUCING BREACH OF CONTRACT – if a contract was made between the plaintiff and the second or third defendants, whether the first defendant directed or procured the second and third defendants to breach that contract in failing to procure the new vehicle for the plaintiff – whether the tort of inducing breach of contract is available where the first defendant is the sole director of the two companies, the second and third defendants, who are sued for breach of contract and not in tort – whether the plaintiff has otherwise made out the elements of the tort of inducing breach of contract.