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Liquidated damages, also referred to as liquidated and ascertained damages (LADs), [1] are damages whose amount the parties designate during the formation of a contract [2] for the injured party to collect as compensation upon a specific breach (e.g., late performance). [3] This is most applicable where the damages are intangible.
Courts enforcing a liquidated damages provision would consider the reasonableness of its amount, specifically if it approximates the amount of actual damages caused, and the ascertain. Failing to meet this condition would turn liquidated damages into an unenforceable penalty that inequitably benefits the party receiving liquidated awards. [8]
The essence of a penalty is a payment of money stipulated as in terrorem of the offending party; the essence of liquidated damages is a genuine covenanted pre-estimate of damage. It will be held to be penalty if the sum stipulated for is extravagant and unconscionable in amount in comparison with the greatest loss that could conceivably be ...
Monetary Damages are Adequate: If the harm caused by the breach can be adequately compensated with money, specific performance is unlikely to be ordered. Contract is Not Clear or Enforceable: If the contract terms are ambiguous, not agreed upon by all parties, or the contract is otherwise unenforceable, specific performance will not be granted.
Under common law, a liquidated damages clause will not be enforced if the purpose of the term is solely to punish a breach (in this case it is termed penal damages). [23] The clause will be enforceable if it involves a genuine attempt to quantify a loss in advance and is a good faith estimate of economic loss.
General Finance Acceptance Ltd v Melrose [1988] 1 NZLR 465 is an often cited case regarding whether a contract term for calculating damages in the future are what is called liquidated damages (i.e. is a genuine pre estimate of damages), [1] [2] or is otherwise deemed a penalty clause, which the courts do not uphold as legally enforceable.
The agreement then said if that did happen, New Garage would pay £5 per tyre 'by way of liquidated damages and not as a penalty'. The judge held the £5 sum was liquidated damages and enforceable. The Court of Appeal held by a majority that the clause was a penalty and Dunlop could only obtain nominal damages. Dunlop appealed.
Liquidated damages are an estimate of loss agreed to in the contract, so that the court avoids calculating compensatory damages and the parties have greater certainty. Liquidated damages clauses may serve either a compensatory or a punitive purpose and, when aimed at the latter, may be referred to as "penalty clauses".