Kleinwort Benson Ltd v. Malaysia Mining Corp. Berhad (1988) 1 All ER 714, EWHC
Citation:Kleinwort Benson Ltd v. Malaysia Mining Corp. Berhad (1988) 1 All ER 714, EWHC
Link to case on WorldLII (reference).
Rule of thumb:Are letters of comfort considered to be contracts? No, as a general rule, they are not considered to be terms of the contract, and just gold-standard honour clauses of no legal effect.
Judgment:
The basic facts of this case were that there was a ‘letter of comfort’ provided. It was argued by one side that the letter of comfort contained implied terms of the contract. The other side argued that letters of comfort did not form part of the contract and it was purely morals whether the person sought to enforce these or not. The court held that letters of comfort did not form part of the contract, “the words used in letter of comfort did not amount to a promise by the defendants which was contractual in nature. The letter of comfort was therefore evidence of a certain yet unenforceable and purely moral obligation’.
Warning: This is not professional legal advice. This is not professional legal education advice. Please obtain professional guidance before embarking on any legal course of action. This is just an interpretation of a Judgment by persons of legal insight & varying levels of legal specialism, experience & expertise. Please read the Judgment yourself and form your own interpretation of it with professional assistance.