Damages
Damages refer to the monetary compensation awarded to a party who has suffered loss or injury due to the wrongful act of another party. In legal terms, damages can be categorized as compensatory (aimed at compensating the injured party for their loss) or punitive (intended to punish the wrongdoer). The purpose of damages is to provide a remedy for the harm caused.
8 Key excerpts on "Damages"
eBook - ePub- Gilbert Kodilinye, Maria Kodilinye(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Such Damages are thus known as ‘compensatory’. The court may award substantial Damages, which are intended to place the claimant in the position he would have been in, had the contract been performed by the defendant, or nominal Damages, that is, a small ‘token’ award in cases where the defendant is technically in breach but the claimant has suffered no actual loss. Exemplary (punitive) Damages are sometimes available in tort claims, but never for breach of contract. 3 3 Addis v Gramophone Co Ltd [1909] AC 488. Measure of Damages Compensatory Damages in contract claims are most often referable to financial loss, but they may also include physical damage to the claimant's person or property (for example, where a defective product causes personal injury to a consumer), the loss of comfort or privacy, and (in limited circumstances) inconvenience and mental distress. The purpose of compensatory Damages in a claim for breach of contract is to put the claimant in the position he would have been in had the contract been performed properly...
eBook - ePub- Brendan Greene(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...C hapter 15 Remedies 15.1 Introduction The main remedies in tort are Damages and injunctions. Damages are financial compensation. Injunctions are mainly to stop the defendant from continuing with the tort. There are other remedies which apply to particular torts. 15.2 Damages Damages are compensation for the claimant. The aim of Damages in tort is to put the claimant in the position they would have been in if the tort had not been committed. This principle is known as restitutio in integrum. A claimant is under a duty to mitigate his losses, which means they must take reasonable steps to reduce their losses. 15.2.1 Compensatory Damages The purpose is to compensate the claimant for the loss they have suffered. The law cannot restore someone to their original position in all cases especially in the case of personal injuries e.g. if the claimant loses a leg in a car accident. Damages are the only means to provide some compensation. Compensatory Damages can be divided into general Damages and special Damages. 15.2.1.1 General Damages General Damages are Damages which cannot be precisely measured e.g. Damages for pain and suffering, or loss of future earnings. 15.2.1.2 Special Damages Special Damages are Damages which can be precisely measured e.g. loss of earnings up to the trial. 15.2.2 Non-Compensatory Damages The main aim of these Damages is not to compensate. They could be either more or less than compensatory Damages. 15.2.2.1 Contemptuous Damages This is a very small sum, usually the smallest coin, one penny. The court is saying that although there has been a technical breach of the law the case should not have been brought. 15.2.2.2 Nominal Damages This is a small sum of money, awarded where the defendant has committed a tort but the claimant has not suffered any damage. They could be awarded for torts actionable per se like trespass to land e.g...
eBook - ePubConstruction Law
An Introduction for Engineers, Architects, and Contractors
- Gail Kelley(Author)
- 2012(Publication Date)
- RSMeans(Publisher)
...CHAPTER 21 CALCULATIONS OF Damages The amount of money awarded to a plaintiff who has prevailed on a claim of loss or injury is referred to as the plaintiff’s Damages. Most claims on construction projects are for breach of contract, and the Damages are compensatory, which means they are designed to put the nonbreaching party in as good a position as it would have been in if the contract had been performed according to its terms. The rationale used to determine appropriate Damages is referred to as the measure of Damages. Typically, the measure of Damages for breach of contract is the nonbreaching party’s expectation interest—in other words, how the party expected to benefit from the contract. Courts also refer to this as the party’s benefit of its bargain. A party is entitled to have the benefit of what it contracted for; when one party has lost the benefit of its bargain because the other party breached the contract, a court will try to restore that benefit. Generally, the rights of the parties are fixed at the time the contract was breached, and Damages are measured as of that time. 21.1 COMPENSATORY Damages Compensatory Damages for a breach of contract can include both direct costs and consequential costs that were reasonably foreseeable at the time the contract was executed (signed). Direct costs are typically costs that can be identified with and charged to a particular cause. For example, if the owner improperly rejected work, the contractor’s direct Damages would be the cost to redo the work. Likewise, if the owner had to hire another contractor to repair defective work, the cost of the repair would be a direct cost. Proof of Damages does not necessarily require exact calculations; it is usually acceptable to perform a reasonable estimate. 21.1.1 Consequential Damages Consequential Damages, also known as special Damages, are Damages that were caused by the breach of contract but cannot be traced to the breach as easily as direct Damages...
...12 Remedies and limitation periods 12.1 Damages 12.1.1 The purpose and character of Damages in tort 1 The purpose of Damages in tort is to put the claimant in the position (s)he would have been in if the tort had not occurred. So at least one element of Damages (general Damages) is speculative (a prediction of what would have happened). The obvious danger is that the claimant is either under-compensated or over-compensated. 3 So tort Damages is an artificial remedy in many situations since it is only a monetary award. 4 There are different types of Damages with different effects. 12.1.2 Non-compensatory Damages 1 Nominal Damages can be awarded if there is no actual loss, but a tort has been committed, e.g. trespass to land. 2 Contemptuous Damages are awarded when the court thinks the action was unnecessary, e.g. with technical defamations. 3 Exemplary Damages are designed to punish the tortfeasor: common elsewhere, e.g. personal injury actions in USA; but have restricted use in England and Wales; Rookes v Barnard (1964) identified three possible categories: i) where government servants act in an oppressive, arbitrary or unconstitutional manner (see House of Lords in Kuddus v Chief Constable of Leicestershire (2001)) which may reveal ‘malice, fraud, insolence, cruelty or the like’ (Muuse v Sec of State for Home Department (2010)); ii) 239where the defendant’s conduct is calculated to profit from the tort, e.g. in some libel actions; iii) where statute expressly allows, e.g...
eBook - ePub- M. Stuart Madden(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
...CHAPTER 18 Damages CONTENTS 18.1 Compensatory Damages 18.1.1 Generally 18.1.2 Personal Injury — Generally 18.1.3 Property Damage — Generally 18.1.4 Economic Loss Rule 18.2 Special Damages 18.2.1 Emotional Distress 18.2.2 Increased Risk 18.2.3 Medical Monitoring 18.2.4 Loss of Consortium 18.2.5 Loss of Enjoyment of Life 18.3 Economic Loss 18.4 Punitive Damages 18.4.1 Generally 18.4.2 Nature and Quality of Actor’s Conduct 18.4.3 Constitutional Limitations Damages 18.1 COMPENSATORY Damages 18.1.1 Generally Where plaintiff is successful in proving that defendant’s tortious conduct proximately caused toxic harm, the jury, or, in a suit tried without a jury, the trial judge, will award compensatory Damages. These compensatory Damages will be gauged as the amount of money it will take to place plaintiff in the financial position he would have been in absent defendant’s wrongful conduct. It is immediately apparent that where plaintiff has suffered personal physical injury or disease from exposure to the toxin, an amount of money Damages serves only as economic solace for an injury that is personal, emotional, and often debilitating. No pretense is maintained that compensatory Damages can accurately repay a person who has suffered personal injury for their physical pain and suffering or their emotional distress. Similar incongruity exists where the available tort remedy is pecuniary and plaintiff’s claims involve dignitary or emotional hardship, such as claims for loss of consortium, lost enjoyment of life, or rational fear that a prior toxic exposure increases the risk that plaintiff will contract disease in the future. Other injury or damage from toxic harm is more suited to the logic of compensatory Damages. Where a person has suffered personal physical injury, such claims may include past and future medical expenses, or cost of rehabilitation. Economic loss, such as lost income of a person or a business, may likewise be recovered in compensatory Damages...
eBook - ePub- Keith Owens(Author)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- Routledge-Cavendish(Publisher)
...CHAPTER 16 REMEDIES FOR BREACH OF CONTRACT There are three principal remedies for breach of contract. These are: Damages; a decree of specific performance; and injunction. Damages Damages is the common law remedy for breach of contract. It consists of a payment of money. The purpose of Damages in the law of contract is to put the injured party in the position he would have been in if the contract had been carried out. In Sunley v Cunard White Star (1940), D agreed to carry a machine belonging to P to Guernsey. However, the machine was delivered a week late. P were not able to show that they had an immediate use for the machine and were, therefore, not able to show that they had lost any profit. Held: P were entitled to £20, representing one week’s depreciation of the machine, and the sum of £10 as interest on the capital cost. Nominal Damages Liability for breach of contract does not depend (as some torts do) on the fact that the plaintiff has suffered damage. However, if the plaintiff has suffered no damage as a result of the breach, he will be awarded only nominal Damages (that is, a conventional sum, say £2). In Staniforth v Lyall (1830), the charterer of a ship failed to load it. Employment was found for the ship elsewhere at no loss. Held: P was entitled to nominal Damages only. In addition to being awarded only nominal Damages, the plaintiff may well be ordered to pay all or part of his own costs, though the normal rule is that costs are awarded against the losing party. Punitive Damages As the name suggests, these Damages have a punitive element. In English law, such Damages are not awarded for breach of contract. General damage This consists of items which are not precisely quantifiable and must be left to the court to assess. Thus, pain and suffering, loss of amenities, disappointment, injured feelings or inconvenience are general Damages...
eBook - ePub- Sanmeet Kaur Dua, Chris Turner(Authors)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...19 Remedies and limitations AIMS AND OBJECTIVES After reading this chapter you should be able to: ■ Explain the different remedies that are available ■ Understand the significance of limitation periods ■ Critically evaluate the remedies that can be awarded ■ Apply the law to factual situations and reach conclusions 19.1 Damages special Damages Not to be confused with special damage – generally refers to Damages for financial losses and expenses incurred up to the date of trial which have to be pleaded separately from the claim itself 19.1.1 Nature and purpose of Damages In many cases where physical damage to property has occurred, the purpose of Damages is clear – to compensate the claimant for the loss suffered, which usually means the cost of repairs and other quantifiable financial loss caused by the tort. It is less clear where personal injury is involved, as the court may also seek to compensate for future financial loss which can only be estimated as well as the pain and suffering which has been caused. In the case of torts actionable per se no actual damage needs to be proved. So what then is the purpose of an award in such cases? Here the court seeks to mark its disapproval of the interference with the claimant’s legal interest whether in relation to bodily integrity (trespass to the person), goods (trespass to goods), land (trespass to land) or reputation (libel and those situations where slander is actionable per se). The award is compensation for violation of such interest. One particular feature of the system raises a very real difficulty. As a general rule, all awards of Damages are final. The case cannot be re-opened and the award reassessed at a later date. How can one predict the future? This is of real concern in personal injury cases...
eBook - ePub- Roger ter Haar(Author)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Informa Law from Routledge(Publisher)
...Chapter 11 Damages for breach of contract Some other general principles 11.1 Some other general principles that can affect the amount of Damages recoverable for breach of contract are now considered. Causation 11.2 If there has been a breach of contract, the contract-breaker is liable to pay at least nominal Damages. To recover more than nominal Damages the claimant must prove what loss he has suffered – or, in legal terms, he must prove what losses have been “caused” by the breach of contract. 11.3 If a breach of contract by a defendant is to be held to entitle a claimant to recover Damages, it must first be held that the breach was an “effective” or “dominant” cause of his loss. 1 The courts distinguish between a breach that is the cause of a loss and a breach that is merely the occasion for loss. 2 This distinction was illustrated by an Australian judge, Mahoney JA as follows: 3 “If a defendant promises to direct me where I should go and, at a cross-roads, directs me to the left road rather than the right road, what happens to me on the left road is, in a sense, the result of what the defendant has done. If I slip on that road, if it collapses under me, or if, because I am there, a car driving down that road and not down the right road strikes me, my loss is, in a sense, the result of the fact that I have been directed to the left road and not the right road. But, in my opinion, it is not everything which is a result in this broad sense which is accepted as a result for this purpose in the law. Thus, if, being on the left road, I slip and fall, the fact alone that it was the defendant’s direction, in breach of contract, which may put me there will not, without more, make the defendant liable for my broken leg. I say ‘without more’: if there be added to the breach the fact that, for example, the left road was known to be dangerous, I may, of course, be liable...
