When signing a contract not only are you agreeing to the terms of this contract you are agreeing to the consequences if breach the contract. There are many remedies available if one of the party’s breaches the contract and if the party who breached the contract doesn’t agree to the consequences then the matter will be taken to court. A breach of contract can be defined as a party failing to perform, precisely and exactly, his obligations under the contract. However a party can only treat the contract as discharged in three situations:
-Renunciation
Renunciation is where a party refuses to perform his obligations under the contract.
-Breach of Condition
The second breach occurs where the party has committed a breach of condition.
-Fundamental Breach
The third breach is where the party in breach has committed a serious breach of a term in the contract or totally fails to perform the contract.
In most cases a breach of contract will result in damages being paid. The point of damages is to put the injured party in the same financial position he would have been in had the contract been properly performed. Damages are not always a suitable remedy so sometimes other remedies are put into place e.g. Injunction.
-Damages
In order for the innocent party to actually get awarded damages they must be able to prove they suffered a loss from the contract not being fulfilled properly. The court has to think about two things when deciding to award someone damages and they are:
-Remoteness
For what consequences of the breach is the defendant legally responsible?
-The measure of damages
The principles upon which the loss or damage is evaluated or quantified in monetary terms. This can only be determined after the first.
If paying damages isn’t sufficient enough then obviously they have to look at other remedies, which include:
-Specific Performance
-Injunction
Specific Performance
Specific