§ 19-30 Contract - Duty to Minimize Damages

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

§ 19-30 Contract - Duty to Minimize Damages

If you find by a preponderance of the evidence that a contract existed between the plaintiff and the defendant, and that the defendant breached that contract, then you must decide whether the plaintiff took reasonable actions to reduce or minimize any damages he may have incurred. The duty to mitigate losses applies to contracts.

A party suffering damages has a duty to exercise reasonable care and diligence to minimize his damages. No recovery may be had for losses which the person injured might have prevented by reasonable efforts and expenditures. The injured party is required to do only that which would be reasonable. In other words, an injured party is required to do that which an ordinary prudent person would do under similar circumstances to mitigate his damages. However, the injured party is not required to unreasonably exert himself or incur substantial expense in an effort...