Contracts Remedies

Question 1

Contracts Remedies

Answer 1

Legal Damages
- Expectation Damages
- Consequential Damages

Legal Restitution
- Quasi-Contract
- Replevin
- Ejectment

Equitable Remedies
- Recission
- Reformation

Injunction
- Temporary Restraining Order (TRO)
- Preliminary Injunctions
- Specific Performance (permanent injunction)

Question 2

Legal Damages

Answer 2

Applicable where (1) parties have a contract, (2) defendant is in breach, and (3) plaintiff who has been injured by the breach wants money to compensate for the loss

Types of Damages
- Expectation Damages
- Consequential Damages
- Incidental Damages
- Reliance Damages
- Liquidated Damages
- Nominal Damages

NOT available - Punitive Damages (unless there is an independent tort claim, such as fraud)

Question 3

Expectation Damages

Answer 3

Compensate for the plainitff for the value of the benefit P expected to receive from the contract
Measured by plaintiff’s injurt stemming from contract nonperformance.

Potential limitations:
1) Causation - damages must be caused by contract breach

2) Foreseeable - damages must be foreseeable to a reasonable person at the time of contract formation

3) Certainty - must be capable of being calculated with certainty and not overly speculative (past losses typically easier than future losses)

4) Unavoidable - plaintiff has a duty to take reasonable steps to mitigate losses. Avoidable Consequences Doctrine limits damages to those that could not reasonably be avoided

5) Liquidated Damages - clause that will control and be the only measure of damages allowed for breach of the underlying contract

Question 4

UCC Expectation Damages

Question 5

Consequential Damages

Answer 5

Seek to compensate for damages that are a direct and foreseeable consequence of the contract not being performed and are found IN ADDITION to expectation damages

Notes:
- Foreseeable at time of contracting
- Potential Limitations from Expectation Damages apply

Types:
- Incidental Damages - includes costs reasonably incurred when other party is in breach (ie reselling goods)

• Reliance Damages - seek to put plaintiff in the same position as if contract had never been made. Measured by losses incurred as a result of reasonable reliance on a contract. Can be awarded in place of expectation damages when damages are difficult to calculate.
• Liquidated Damages - stipulated in a clause in the contract. A valid clause will control a damage award when 1) damages are difficult to calculate; and 2) stipulated amoutn in liquidated damages clause bears reasonable relationship to the anticipated loss AND is not a penalty
• Nominal Damages - serve as declaration that contract has been breach but plaintiff has suffered no loss. Serves to vindicate plaintiff’s rights.

NO PUNITIVE DAMAGES UNLESS UNDERLYING TORT

Question 6

Legal Restitution

Answer 6

Appropriate when D has derived a benefit or has become unjustly enriched