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Remedies for Breach of Contract

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Remedies for Breach of Contract
Chapter 18: Remedies for Breach of Contract
Election to discharge: self-help remedy
Types of Judicial Remedies
• Common law remedy of damages
• Common law remedy of an action for a fixed sum
• Equitable remedy of specific performance
• Equitable remedy of injunction
Limitation Act
• Judicial remedies may be barred by lapse of time due to LA
• S 6 LA: no action against breach of contract after 6 years have passed (unless party unaware of breach)
• LA does not apply to any legal action rooted purely in unjust enrichment o Management Corporation Strata Title No 473 v De Beers Jewellery Pte Ltd (2002)
Equitable doctrine of laches
• Preserved by s 32 of LA.
• Remedies for specific performance and injunction
• Applicant who delay in applying turned away when delay is inordinate and inexcusable: make application as soon as the nature of case permits
• Consider the length of delay and whether the defendant acquiesced in the delay
Contract Damages at Common Law: Compensation
• Contractual damages: sum of money for any pecuniary losses incurred due to breach
• Compensation only o Damages are compensatory in nature o Common law does not traditionally award punitive damages in cases of breach unlike for tort
 Addis v Gramophone Company Ltd (1909) o Exception: Whiten v Pilot Insurance Co (2002): Pilot tried to have a cynical ploy to force Mrs Whiten to settle claim for lower sum
 Pilot had to pay not only C$30,000 (insurance terms) but also C$1 million – punitive damages in denunciation of Pilot’s exceptionally reprehensible behaviour. Liquidated versus Unliquidated damages
• Liquidated o pre-agreed value is a genuine pre-estimate of the loss which could be suffered as a result of breach
• Unliquidated o Awarded when penalty clause is aimed at “punishing” the party in breach – court awards unliquidated damages o Sometimes the unliquidated damages – more than what penalty clause was set to have
 Public Works Commissioner v Hills (1906)
•
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