When your business has gone through the trouble of negotiating, drafting and signing a business contract with another entity, it can be extremely frustrating when they don’t follow through. If they fail to uphold their side of the bargain, it can cause serious damage to your business, and you might need to bring a lawsuit to recover some of those losses. Sometimes, instead of going after monetary compensation, however, it might be best to ask the court to obligate the other party to fulfill their contractual obligations.
Remedies for breach of contract
There are several different kinds of remedies you can ask the court for in your breach of contract lawsuit. Most of the time, people seek monetary compensation for the losses incurred when the other party breached, such as lost profits, costs of replacing the contract with another, loss of time and so forth.
Sometimes, however, the breach causes you to lose out on something irreplaceable. If you were contracting to buy a certain piece of property or unique item, for example, then receiving your money back won’t give you the justice you require. In those cases, it’s best to ask for strict performance.
Strict performance
Strict performance is when the court obligates a party to live up to their side of the bargain. For example, if you contracted to buy a piece of property, but the other party later refuses to sell it to you, the court can force the sale to happen.
Strict performance is usually only for the purchase of unique items or land. It is almost never a proper remedy for service contracts. After all, the court can hardly force someone to perform a service – such as to paint a house – and do a good job at it!
If your contract was breached by the other party, and you feel that having the contract completed would be more beneficial to your company than monetary compensation would be, then your attorney can bring a breach of contract suit and request specific performance. That way, you will be put in the same situation you would be in if they had performed as planned.
