No Damages for Loss of Reputation After Breach of Contractual Disciplinary Procedure

The majority of the Supreme Court has held that claims for breach of express contract terms, in the form of failure to follow contractual disciplinary procedures, fell within the "Johnson exclusion area". The alleged breaches were not independent of the act of dismissal, so the claimants could not be awarded common law damages for loss of reputation flowing from those breaches. To award such damages would erode the distinction that exists between common law contractual rights and the statutory right not to be unfairly dismissed. Parliament cannot have intended for common law rights to trespass on the statutory scheme. (Edwards v Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Botham v Ministry of Defence [2011] UKSC 58.)