ABSTRACT
See also Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Co Ltd v Selfridge & Co Ltd [1915] AC 847 at 853. “Our law knows nothing of a jus quaestium tertio arising by way of contract.”
7 Per Lord Keith, GUS Property Management Ltd v Littlewoods Mail Order Services Ltd [1982] SLT 533. In this case, a building in Glasgow was damaged by works carried out to a neighbouring property. After the damage had occurred, the building was transferred to GUS, a company in same group as the original owner; GUS carried out repairs to the building, subsequently the original owner assigned its causes of action to GUS and GUS sued for cost of repairs or diminution in value of the building. The defendant’s defence was that the original owner had received value from GUS and therefore had suffered no loss. The defence failed since the House of Lords held that this was an irrelevant internal arrangement, the original owner was held to have suffered loss, and the question was how to quantify it.
