Remedies for Breach of Contract

When a contract is breached, the law provides the aggrieved (injured) party with several possible remedies, which may be pursued singly or, in appropriate cases, together.

1. Rescission of the contract — the aggrieved party may treat the contract as cancelled and refuse further performance of their own obligations under it, being freed from having to perform.
2. Suit for damages (Sections 73–75) — the aggrieved party may claim monetary compensation for the loss caused by the breach.
   • Ordinary (general) damages — compensation for the loss that naturally and directly arises from the breach in the usual course of things.
   • Special damages — compensation for loss arising from special circumstances, recoverable only if those special circumstances were known to both parties at the time the contract was made.
   • Exemplary (punitive) damages — awarded in exceptional cases not to compensate loss but to punish the wrongdoer, e.g. for a bank's wrongful dishonour of a cheque, or breach of a promise to marry.
   • Nominal damages — a small, token sum awarded where a breach is technically proved but no real/substantial loss has actually resulted.
3. Suit for specific performance — where damages would not be an adequate remedy (e.g. the subject-matter is unique, such as a particular piece of land or a rare article), the court may order the party in breach to actually carry out their promise rather than merely pay compensation.
4. Suit for injunction — a court order restraining a party from doing something they had promised not to do (used mainly to enforce a negative term of the contract). …