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Tim Morshead KC on the “Own Wrong” Principle after King Crude and Weston Homes - Property Case Law Update

Friday 27 February 2026

Tim Morshead KC on the Own Wrong Principle after King Crude and Weston Homes
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Tim Morshead KC on the “Own Wrong” Principle after…

In a new video, Tim Morshead KC takes a look at what is left of the so-called “own wrong” principle after two recent and important cases: the Supreme Court’s decision in King Crude Carriers SA v Ridgebury November LLC and the High Court’s ruling in Henley Developments 211 Ltd v Weston Homes PLC. 

He explains how King Crude firmly rejects the idea of a free-standing doctrine that treats conditions as automatically satisfied when one party gets in the way, while Weston Homes shows that the rule against benefiting from one’s own breach is really about how contracts are interpreted, not a rule that overrides clear drafting. The video brings these decisions together to ask a simple but important question for practitioners: if the “own wrong” principle still has a role, where does it sit - and what work does it actually do - in modern English contract law?

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