Date: Fri, 6 Jul 2007 08:09

From: Neil Foster

Subject: Criminal Breach of Contract

Dear Jason et al

There is old authority that "unlawful act manslaughter" may be committed by breach of contract: see K Harrison "Manslaughter by Breach of Employment Contract" (1992) 21 Industrial Law Jnl 31-43, citing a trio of colliery cases where employees (!) were convicted of manslaughter arising out of incidents in coal mines - Haines (1847) C&K 368, Lowe (1850) 3 C&K 123, Hughes (1857) Dears & B 248.

The last such case seems to have been Pittwood (1902) 19 TLR 37. But one suspects these might not be followed today.

Regards
Neil Foster

Neil Foster
Newcastle Law School
Faculty of Business & Law
University of Newcastle
Callaghan NSW 2308
AUSTRALIA
ph 02 4921 7430
fax 02 4921 6931

>>> Jason Neyers 6/07/07 5:02 >>>

Dear Colleagues:

Is a breach of contract ever a crime in England? Is there a doctrine similar to that of s. 422 of the Canadian Criminal Code (see below). Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Criminal breach of contract

422. (1) Every one who wilfully breaks a contract, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that the probable consequences of doing so, whether alone or in combination with others, will be

(a) to endanger human life,

(b) to cause serious bodily injury,

(c) to expose valuable property, real or personal, to destruction or serious injury,

(d) to deprive the inhabitants of a city or place, or part thereof, wholly or to a great extent, of their supply of light, power, gas or water, or

(e) to delay or prevent the running of any locomotive engine, tender, freight or passenger train or car, on a railway that is a common carrier,

is guilty of

(f) an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years, or

(g) an offence punishable on summary conviction.

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