BLAW 2301 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Liquidated Damages, Helen Baxendale, Estoppel
CH 19 REMEDIES
•Breach of contract: Failure to perform a duty without a valid excuse
•Remedy: A court’s compensation to the injured party
•The first step that a court takes in choosing a remedy is to decide what interest it is trying to
protect
–Interest: A legal right in something
•There are four principal contract interests that a court may seek to protect:
–Expectation Interest
–Reliance Interest
–Restitution Interest
–Equitable Interest
•Expectation damages: The money required to put one party in the position she would have
been in had the other side performed the contract. Future.
•This is the most common remedy that the law provides for a party injured by a breach of
contract
•Hawkins v. McGee (1929)
•Courts typically divide the expectation damages into three parts:
–(1) Direct (or “compensatory”) damages, which represent harm that flowed directly
from the contract’s breach; ex: $8,000 car getting $2000 back.
–(2) Consequential (or “special”) damages, which represent harm caused by the injured
party’s unique situation- foreseeable consequences of the breach (heres whts gonna
happen if u breach the contract); EX: mill and lost profit and
–(3) Incidental damages, which are minor costs such as storing or returning defective
goods, advertising for alternative goods, and so forth. ex: storing the car somewhere,
fees for newspaper ad of the ar etc
–Punitive damages are rarely awarded in contracts cases. damages exceeding simple
compensation and awarded to punish the defendant.
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