Damages

Damages are the monetary compensation a court or tribunal awards for breach of contract or tort, measured to put the claimant in the position it would have occupied had the breach not occurred (restitutio in integrum). The expectation measure protects the bargained-for outcome; the reliance measure recovers wasted expenditure. Recoverable loss must not be too remote under Hadley v Baxendale (1854): it must arise naturally from the breach or have been within the parties’ contemplation. The claimant must mitigate, and damages reduce by avoidable loss. In charterparty disputes, detention and demurrage are liquidated damages for delay, fixed by the contract rather than proved at large.