Property Outline
CHAPTER 1: REMEDIES FOR BREACH OF CONTRACT
THE GOALS OF CONTRACT DAMAGES
Case name | Facts | Issue | Holding | Reasoning | Expectation | | | | | Hawkins v. McGee1 | P sues D surgeon for breach of warranty of operation success – “I guarantee to make a 100% perfect hand.” | Was there a K and a breach? Were damages appropriate? | There was a K and a breach. Damages measure should have been expectation damages. | Purpose of damages is to put P in as good a position as he would have been in had D kept the K. Difference b/t value to him of a perfect hand and value of hand in present condition, which includes any ill effect (the ill effect is not a separate element of damages; it’s included in expectations measure) | Sullivan v. O’Connor2 | Entertainer underwent surgery for better nose; instead got a worse nose. | What’s measure of damages – expectation or reliance? | Reliance measure of damages is correct. | Don’t know how much money she could have been making w/a perfect nose. Credibility of patients re: alleged statements of their doctors. | Diminution in value vs. cost of performance | Groves v. John Wunder Co.3 | P leased land and screening plant to D for 7 yr term; D paid $105,000 and promised to grade (make land of uniform grade after removing gravel and sand); D deliberately breached by removing only best gravel | Which kind of expectation damages is correct – diminution in value or cost of performance? | Cost of performance is correct measure of damages. | Don’t want to reward D’s bad faith (willful breach)Law aims to award P w/what was promisedNo economic waste in remedying defectsClass notes – like buying a lottery ticket when measure is cost of performance; no lottery when measure is diminution in value.Under the Restatement, expectation interest = loss of value resulting from the breach | Peevyhouse v. Garland Coal & Mining Co.4 | P family leased ½ of farm to Ds to strip mine; Ds supposed to fill in pits and smooth surface; Ds
THE GOALS OF CONTRACT DAMAGES
Case name | Facts | Issue | Holding | Reasoning | Expectation | | | | | Hawkins v. McGee1 | P sues D surgeon for breach of warranty of operation success – “I guarantee to make a 100% perfect hand.” | Was there a K and a breach? Were damages appropriate? | There was a K and a breach. Damages measure should have been expectation damages. | Purpose of damages is to put P in as good a position as he would have been in had D kept the K. Difference b/t value to him of a perfect hand and value of hand in present condition, which includes any ill effect (the ill effect is not a separate element of damages; it’s included in expectations measure) | Sullivan v. O’Connor2 | Entertainer underwent surgery for better nose; instead got a worse nose. | What’s measure of damages – expectation or reliance? | Reliance measure of damages is correct. | Don’t know how much money she could have been making w/a perfect nose. Credibility of patients re: alleged statements of their doctors. | Diminution in value vs. cost of performance | Groves v. John Wunder Co.3 | P leased land and screening plant to D for 7 yr term; D paid $105,000 and promised to grade (make land of uniform grade after removing gravel and sand); D deliberately breached by removing only best gravel | Which kind of expectation damages is correct – diminution in value or cost of performance? | Cost of performance is correct measure of damages. | Don’t want to reward D’s bad faith (willful breach)Law aims to award P w/what was promisedNo economic waste in remedying defectsClass notes – like buying a lottery ticket when measure is cost of performance; no lottery when measure is diminution in value.Under the Restatement, expectation interest = loss of value resulting from the breach | Peevyhouse v. Garland Coal & Mining Co.4 | P family leased ½ of farm to Ds to strip mine; Ds supposed to fill in pits and smooth surface; Ds