Module 2 · Chapter 5

Breach of Contract, Damages and Remoteness of Damage

When one side breaks a contract, the other can claim money for its loss. This chapter shows how that money is measured, and which losses sit too far from the breach to count.

≈ 8 min read 8-question test

In this chapter

  • What damages are for, and the two tests a court applies to any loss
  • Which of Marrowby’s four heads of loss it could recover at all
  • Why the claim and the unpaid invoice net to one figure

5.1Damages in one paragraph

Duarte’s third question is this: what can Marrowby claim from us? When one side breaks a contract, the other can claim damages. This is money that puts it where it would have been if the contract had been kept. But a loss counts only if it arose naturally from the breach, or both sides could have had it in mind. Any other loss is too remote: too far from the breach to be paid for.

Key point

Damages pay for the loss a breach caused. But they cover only the loss the seller could have foreseen when it made the contract. Find the rule, then test each head of loss against it on its own.

Also in this chapter

  1. What damages are for, and the two limbs
  2. Marrowby’s four heads of loss
  3. The lost profit nobody told us about
  4. Your job

Preview

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