CTN Cash and Carry Ltd v Gallaher Ltd [1993] EWCA Civ 19 is an English contract law case relating to duress.
CTN Cash and Carry Ltd had a dispute with Gallaher Ltd about whether CTN should pay for some cigarettes that were delivered to the wrong warehouse and got stolen before Gallaher Ltd could pick them up again and take them to another warehouse.
Later it was determined that the risk of the lost cigarettes was not on CTN and they sued for repayment.
Steyn LJ held that the threatened withdrawal of future credit was not duress, but he expressly refrained from saying there could never be ‘lawful act duress’ in a commercial context.
He said the move would be a ‘radical one with far-reaching implications… introduce a substantial and undesirable element of uncertainty in the commercial bargaining process.’ ‘It is an unattractive result, inasmuch as the defendants are allowed to retain a sum which at the trial they became aware was not in truth due to them.