Business
Damages refer to monetary compensation and are a basic remedy in the common law offered by the court to compensate the plaintiff for the loss that he or she has suffered due to a contract breach. They may be grouped as either nominal or substantial. Nominal damages are an amount offered by the court in a bid to show that a party’s rights have been violated but there was no loss as a result of the breach. On the other hand, substantial damages are an amount awarded by the court as the actual loss suffered as a result of the contract breach. Damages may be grouped in to four broad categories of equitable remedies. This includes specific performance, injunction, rescission, and Quantum meruit. Specific performance involves the court ordering or compelling a party to perform its contractual obligations as was previously agreed. It may be granted in circumstances where monetary compensation is inadequate or where the matter in question has a rare feature such as land.
Second, injunction involves the court restraining a party from continuing to perform a particular task or compelling it to undo an earlier act that was wrongfully done. Third, rescission involves restating the parties to the positions that they were before the contract. Forth, quantum meruit involves compensation for the work already done. The plaintiff is paid for the amount of work completed. Mitigation of damages is to the effect that when a breach of contract occurs, it is the duty of the innocent party to take reasonable steps to reduce the loss it is likely to suffer from the breach. For instance, in the case Harris V Edmonds, it was held that where the charterer of a ship failed to provide cargo in contract breach, the ship captain was bound to take the cargo from other persons at competitive rates.
Works Cited
Grundmann, Stefan. "Regulating Breach Of Contract – The Right To Reject Performance By The Party In Breach." European Review of Contract Law 3.2 (2007): 121-149. Print.
