“The court would not award compensation under a cross-undertaking for the loss sustained by an unlawful business or where the beneficiary of the cross-undertaking had to rely to a substantial extent upon his own illegality in order to establish the loss, provided the unlawfulness was sufficiently serious to engage the ex turpi causa rule. What was sufficiently serious depended on the circumstances of the case, and in particular the state of knowledge of the claimant under the cross-undertaking at the relevant time; but the claimant’s conduct had to be assessed having regard to the fact that the claim was for compensation under a cross-undertaking.”
WLR Daily, 29th March 2011
Source: www.iclr.co.uk
Please note once a case has been fully reported in one of the ICLR series the corresponding WLR Daily summary is removed.