This year was always going to be the hangover after the Olympics, but it started well for the man I awarded the gold medal in legal gymnastics in my 2012 review. The Court of Appeal approved Mr Justice Akenhead's summary, in Walter Lilly vs Mackay, of the law on delay and disruption claims that do not fully show cause and effect. Given its wide impact, Mr Justice Akenhead's judgment was probably the most important of 2012. There was less good news for last year's silver medallist. In Compass vs Mid Essex, Mr Justice Cranston's broad application of an express duty of good faith was reversed on appeal. The Court of Appeal reaffirmed what one professor calls "traditional English hostility" towards a general duty of good faith in contracts.
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