A court may not award damages on a basis not advanced at trial, even where the pleadings are broad enough to accommodate the alternative basis and the court considers the true measure of damages exceeds the amount claimed. Where a damages case is conducted on a specific and limited basis at trial, claims outside that basis are forensically abandoned and cannot support an award without notice to the opposing party. The decision in [name withheld] ([name withheld]) Pty Ltd v Thiess Contractors Pty Ltd, which permits estimation where precise evidence cannot be adduced, does not apply where a party has deliberately confined its damages case to specific evidence.
The full text is available to signed-in members, including the 2 later cases that cite this judgment.
2 of the 2 citing cases carry a classified treatment. How each court treated it is available to signed-in members.