Help With Contract Damages

It’s springtime, which means that young people’s fancies are turning to how to calculate breach of contract damages on their Contracts II final exams.  It’s not hard to see why they’re baffled, since it’s hard to find even two contracts profs who think about damages exactly the same way.

Help is on the way, though, at least for you visual learners.  Chapman contracts prof Tom Bell has a great flowchart he’s prepared for his students, and which you may find helpful.  Keep in mind, though, that the chart may represent Bell’s take on certain disputed issues (such as whether reliance and expectation damages are cumulative), so if your teacher thinks the rule is different, be careful.  Still, it’s the best damages flowchart I’ve run across.

[Frank Snyder]