Judgment was given yesterday by Mr Justice Fancourt in UTB LLC v Sheffield United Ltd & Ors [2019] EWHC 2322 (Ch). The decision is noteworthy because of the discussion it contains concerning the use of the label 'relational contract' and the circumstances in which a duty of good faith should be implied in an investment and shareholder agreement. The trial observed (paras. [203] - [204]):Rather than seek to identify and weigh likely indicia of a "relational contract" in the narrower sense used by Leggatt LJ, it is, I consider, preferable to ask oneself first – as Leggatt LJ did in the Sheikh Tahnoon case – whether a reasonable reader of the contract would consider that an obligation of good faith was obviously meant or whether the obligation is necessary to the proper working of the contract. The overall character of the contract in issue will of course be highly material in answering that question but so will its particular terms, as recognised by the principle that (as restated in the Marks and Spencer case) no term may be implied into a contract if it would be inconsistent with an express term.
That approach is, in my respectful opinion, preferable also because the exact content of any implied obligation of fair dealing, or to act with integrity, or to act in good faith, will be highly sensitive to the particular context of the contract, as observed by Dove J in D&G Cars Ltd v Essex Police Authority [2015] EWHC 226 (QB) at [175]. The greater part of that context is the express terms of the contract. Thus, to imply a general obligation to act at all times in good faith towards the counterparty because the contract is a relational contract may fail to have regard to rights and obligations created by the express terms, to which any implied obligation must be tailored if it is not to be excluded as being inconsistent with them. In the instant case there is a real example of just such a question, to which I return ..."
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