Class 1 - Damages for Breach of contract

Question 1

What is the presumptive remedy in common law?

Answer 1

Damages
Damages are said to be efficient and predictable

Question 2

In which position the court have to put the party?

Answer 2

The Court have to put the party in position that he/she would have been without the breach.

Question 3

What are the 3 damages interests?

Answer 3

1. Restitution : Put the breaching party in the position he would have been if the contract had never been made.
2. Reliance : Put the non-breaching party in the position he would have been in had the contract never been made. We are focusing what the non-breaching party did.
3. Expectation : Put the non-breaching party in the position he would have been in had the contract been performed.

Question 4

What to remember from Anglia Television v. Reed?

Answer 4

Facts : Anglia decides to make a film. Anglia hires a director, designer and other staff. Anglia approaches Mr. Reed to play the leading role after hiring the director, etc.
Shooting to begin on September 8. Reed signs a contract on September 2. The following day Reed notifies Anglia that he will not perform. The project is cancelled, and all the expenses wasted.

Held : the court give Anglia the pre-contract as well as post-contract expense, because when he signed the contract, Reed knew that Anglia had already spend a lot of money preparing to film. He also knew, therefore, that if he baked out at the last moment that expenditure would be wasted.

If the Pre-K costs were likely to be wasted, and defendant knew or should’ve known
they were going to be wasted, the pre-K costs will be added to the amount added in
damages. Otherwise, the defendant will not be liable for the pre-K costs

Question 5

What to remember from Hawkins v. McGee?

Answer 5

Facts : Boy, burns his hand, the local doctor would came back and decide to practice skin grafting. The hand was not usable. The doctor said “I have this new technique skin-grafting”. What did the doctor promise? A 100 percent perfect hand. The doctor takes the skin from his chest to put this on his hand. But the hand was hairy.
The boy get a damaged and hairy hand.

Held : The measure of the damage should be the expectation the patient had when he
entered the contract. Here it is a perfect hand. Because of the promise of the doctor, we don’t have to put him in the same situation as before the operation, we have to put him in the situation he would have been after the promise, which is a perfect hand.

Question 6

How to measure damages in general?

Answer 6

The loss in the value to him of the other party’s performance caused by its failure or deficiency
+
Any other loss, including incidental or consequential loss, caused by the breach
- Things that arise as the result of the breach

Question 7

What to remember from Pitcher v. Shoebottom

Answer 7

Facts : Pitcher (Plaintiff) made an oral agreement with the defendant (Shoebottom) to buy his
land. This agreement was reduced to writing in the summer of 1959, and the plaintiff
made some payments to Shoebottom under the agreement. In 1960, defendant sold
the land to a third party.
Plaintiff brought an action against defendant for Specific Performance. He also made
a claim that the subsequent buyer had no interest in the land. Alternatively, he also
made a claim for damages against defendant.

Held : the normal measure of damage is the difference between the contract price of the land AND the current market value.