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Two parties reached and out of court settlement part of the signed argeement was that the quantum of the settlemt shall remain confidential in all respects. One of the parties has disclosed what the quantum was made up of but did not disclose the monetary sum involved. Is this a breach of the confidential agreement if so waht action can be taken?Look forward to your responseRegardsTony Rea emailXXX@XXXXXX.XXX
Hi Welcome to JustAnswer. My first response will follow shortly. Please feel free to follow up if anything is not clear
The confidentiality agreement is a contract, and so a breach of the terms of the contract leads to damages. The issue here is whether the confidentiality is restricted to the total, or applies to the calculation.
This may depend on how you worded the settlement. On a strict wording, if this was just the quantum which was to be confidential then he has not breached the agreement. However if the disclosure of the method and components would lead to the quantum being obvious, or close to what was agreed then this would be a breach
The damages are more difficult to calculate, and depend on the harm done. in general courts are sympathetic to damages in such cases because of the element of reneging on an agreement. So general damages (but usually only a modest sum) would be the result.
In the wrst cases this could unravel the whole settlement but this may not be the case here
*worst
Thanks, the clause states"The quantum of settlement as set oun in clause 3 of the agreement shall be and remain confidential in all respects and the clause shall extend to and include parties to this agreement, their respective directors, officeres,agents and employees" Clause 3 states the sum due and the date payable nothing else
Regards
Experience: LLB MMgt FAMINZ 32 years qualified as lawyer
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There is a software glitch which means some have difficulty seeing the answer so I have changed the view
The disclosure of the components may be a breach if it leads to disclosure of the quantum-that would be a logical inference from the agreement and likely to be an implied term, that should prevent disclosure of the components if this breaches the obligation not to disclose quantum.