When handling matters between two or more businesses it is commonplace for a written agreement, or contract, to be in place. This helps manage the expectations and duties that each party agrees to uphold in order for the businesses to achieve goals. However, not every business plan or contract will happen according to plan. Sometimes, for various reasons, one or both sides of an agreement do not uphold their contractual obligations. This is called breach of contract, and commercial litigation may result.
It is important to remember that each agreement between parties is different depending on the needs of each company. However, there are limited courses of action for when a party defaults on their end of the contract. The options are to seek remedy for the situation, or monetary awards. There are several different types of remedies that could possibly be sought due to breach of contract.
Compensatory damages are sought most commonly for breach of contract. When a party is awarded compensatory damages, it means that the party in breach of contract must compensate the other party for whatever they promised they would do, but did not. For example, if the company in breach promised to manufacture 1000 widgets but could not, the other company will find another company of their choosing to price out this manufacturing job. Then, the company in breach must pay the awarded party whatever it costs to have the other company manufacture the 1000 widgets.
The amount paid could be more than what the parties had originally agreed upon in their contract. This is why this remedy for breach of contract can be so vague. Depending on the situation for what the parties agreed to be done, the damage could be equal, a little bit more or much more than the originally budget cost for contract work. This is why is it best to avoid breaching contract as the waters become murky and it can be unclear exactly what future costs could be associated with this decision.
Source: findlaw.com, "What is the most common legal remedy for breach of contract," Accessed March 6, 2015
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