§ 19-27 Contract - Damages for Breach of Contract

• Library: South Carolina Requests to Charge - Civil (SCBar) (2016 Ed.)

§ 19-27 Contract - Damages for Breach of Contract

What damages are recoverable under a contract theory?

The damages recoverable for a breach of contract are those which follow as a natural consequence of the breach or those damages which may reasonably be supposed to have been within the contemplation of the parties at the time the contract was entered into. Generally, the damages to which one is entitled for breach of contract are those which arise naturally from the breach or those which reasonably may be supposed to have been within the contemplation of the parties at the time the contract was entered into.

One who seeks to recover damages for a breach of contract to which he was a party must show that the contract has been performed on his part, or at least that he was, at the appropriate time, able, ready, and willing to perform it.

A party who has been injured by the breach of a contract is entitled to recover the amount of the loss. That is to say, he is entitled, insofar as this can be done by a monetary award, to be placed in the same position he would have occupied if the contract had been performed.

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 to arise naturally according to the usual course of things from the breach of contract itself, or such damages as may reasonably be supposed to have been within the contemplation of the parties at the time they made it as the probable result of the breach.

See Bencsh v. Davidson, 354 S.C. 173, 580 S.E.2d 128 (2003); Stern & Stern Assocs. v. Timmons, 310 S.C. 250, 423 S.E.2d 124 (1992); Manning v. City of Columbia, 297 S.C. 451, 377 S.E.2d 335 (1989); Drews Co. v. Ledwith-Wolfe Assoc., 296 S.C. 207, 371 S.E.2d 532 (1988); Goodwin v. Hilton Head Co., 273 S.C. 758, 259 S.E.2d 611 (1979), overruled on other grounds, Fici v. Koon, 372 S.C. 341, 642 S.E.2d 602 (2007); Holmes v. Nationwide Life Ins. Co., 273 S.C. 711, 258 S.E.2d 924 (1979); Hutson v. Continental Assurance Co., 269 S.C. 322, 237 S.E.2d 375 (1977), overruled on other grounds by O'Neal v. Bowles, 314 S.C. 525, 431 S.E.2d 555 (1993); Dunsil v. E.M. Jones Chevrolet Co., 268 S.C. 291, 233 S.E.2d 101 (1977); Kline Iron and Steel Co. v. Superior Trucking Co., 261 S.C. 542, 201 S.E.2d 388 (1973); Fuller v. Eastern Fire & Cas. Ins. Co., 240 S.C. 75, 124 S.E.2d 602 (1962); South Carolina

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