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American Contract Law for a Global Age, 2017a

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Restatement (Second) of <strong>Contract</strong>s states the typical rule: If a non-breaching party<br />

can avoid breach-of-contract damages “without undue risk, burden, or humiliation,”<br />

but fails to do so, it will not be awarded those damages. <strong>Law</strong>yers and courts<br />

sometimes refer to this concept as the “duty to mitigate,” but you should understand<br />

that this is not a “duty” in the sense of being an affirmative obligation such as the<br />

duty of ordinary care in negligence law. A party is free to not mitigate its damages,<br />

but the cost of it doing so is that it will not be awarded those damages it could have<br />

avoided.<br />

Certainty. Our final limiting doctrine is very easy to state but somewhat<br />

challenging to apply. Section 352 of the Restatement (Second) of <strong>Contract</strong>s provides<br />

that “[d]amages are not recoverable <strong>for</strong> loss beyond an amount that the evidence<br />

permits to be established with reasonable certainty.” What exactly does “reasonable<br />

certainty” mean? Where buyer Burge’s new business venture suffers because of seller<br />

Snyder’s contract breach, proving expectancy damages can be quite difficult because<br />

of the certainty test. Burge might claim that his line of collectable law professor<br />

figurines would have generated enormous profits if only Snyder had delivered the<br />

rare marble required to make them. Can Burge prove his claim in a way that rises<br />

above the level of pure (and self-interested) speculation? Application of this test ends<br />

up being very fact specific and allows <strong>for</strong> a great deal of creative advocacy by lawyers.<br />

_____________________<br />

A. The Foreseeability Limitation<br />

Cases and Materials<br />

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS RIVERBOAT/CASINO CRUISES, INC.<br />

v. HNEDAK BOBO GROUP, INC.<br />

United States District Court <strong>for</strong> the Southern District of Illinois<br />

2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 53776 (No. 03-CV-4215-JPG)<br />

GILBERT, U.S.D.J.<br />

This matter comes be<strong>for</strong>e the Court on a motion <strong>for</strong> partial summary judgment<br />

on the issue of liability <strong>for</strong> plaintiff’s fire watch expenses filed by defendant Hnedak<br />

Bobo Group, Inc. (“HBG”). The plaintiff, Southern Illinois Riverboat/Casino Cruises,<br />

Inc. (“Harrahs”), has responded to HBG’s motion and HBG has replied to the<br />

response.<br />

Harrahs and HBG entered into an agreement on June 29, 2000, under which<br />

HBG agreed to design the docking facility <strong>for</strong> a riverboat casino Harrahs planned to<br />

build on the Ohio River in Metropolis, Illinois. Harrahs wanted to replace the casino<br />

______________________________________________________________________________<br />

522 CHAPTER VIII: REMEDIES

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