The French and British...Always fighting about something

The French Rule of Mitigating Factors in Contract Damages:

"The damages due to the creditor consist in general of the loss that he has sustained, and the profit which he has been prevented from acquiring...The debtor is only liable for the damages foreseen, or which might have been foreseen, at the time of the execution of the contract, when it is not owing to his fraud that the agreement has been violated. Even in the case of non-performance of the contract, resulting from the fraud of the debtor, the damages only comprise so much of the loss sustained by the creditor, and so much of the profit which he has been prevented from acquiring, as directly and immediately results from the non-performance of the contract."

-- Sedgwick on Contracts (translated)


The British Rule of Mitigating Factors in Contracts Damages:

"Where two parties have made a contract which one of them has broken, the damages which the other party ought to receive in respect to such breach of contract should be such as may fairly and reasonably be considered either arising naturally, i.e. according to the usual course of things, from such breach of contract itself, or such as may reasonably be supposed to have been in contemplation of both parties, at the time they made the contract, as the probable result of the breach of it."

-- Hadley v. Baxendale (U.K. 1854)


Whew! Them's fighting words!

Can't we all just get along?

"Hug it out bitch"

Stay Tuned...