DAMAGES AS COMMON LAW REMEDY

Historically, the only remedy available at Common Law is the award of damages, which was not always sufficient in all cases, this led to the intervention of the court of Chancery in awarding equitable remedies one of which is injunctions which we discussed earlier.

In simple terms, damages merely refers to monetary compensation for the loss suffered by the plaintiff from the breach of the defendant. The object of the award of damages is to put the defendant in the position he would have been as the breach not taken place as far as possible. For Instance, if A a car dealer contracts to sell a Car to be for N5 million, and B fails to buy the car, and a result of delay in selling the car as at the time A will sell the car to C, the market value has reduced to N4 million, A will be awarded the difference of N1 million as damages.

As a general rule, damages are intended to be compensatory and not punitive. However, in certain circumstances the court may award examplary damages where for instance the defendant's act was either willful or flagrant.

Let's examine the various types of damages:
1. Compensatory Damage: This is an award for the pecuniary loss of the the plaintiff (see F.R.A Williams v. Daily Times Nigeria Ltd). This could be classified into:
A. General damages: This is the damages which the court award based on the presumed loss of the plaintiff. That is, the attitude of the court is this; if there is a breach then there must be some damage. So, the plaintiff need not specially plead that he suffered any real or actual damage before general damage is awarded.
B. Special Damages: This is awarded in addition to general damages  where the plaintiff shows that he suffered some real or actual Damages. Such as loss of profit, loss of income and earnings, etc. They need to be specially pleaded before they are awarded.

2. Punitive or Exemplary Damage: This is compensation awarded over and above the damage suffered by the plaintiff, as a punishment to the defendant. Thus where the actual loss is N1 million the court may award N10 million to the plaintiff as punishment to the defendant. This is usually where the breach is intentional, flagrant, or the defendant derived economic benefit from it. (see Rookes v. Bernard)

3. Aggravated Damages: This is an award for non pecuniary loss of the Plaintiff such as loss of reputation, goodwill, honour, pride, integrity etc. (see F.R.A Williams v. Daily Times Nigeria Ltd)

4. Nominal Damages: this is awarded where the loss suffered by the defendant is minimal or insubstantial, it is an award of meagre amount to the plaintiff.

Some Rules Governing the Award of Damages
1. Remoteness of Damage: The court will usually not award any damage for a consequence that is too remote to be said to result from the breach. For example, if A contracts to sell his car to B and B fails to buy and as a result the car was stolen in A premises. This loss of the car can not be said to result from B breach, and thus is too remote.

2. Mitigation of Loss: In Law, A is expected to mitigate his loss and not allow it to flow endlessly. so where B fails to buy the car he is expected to sell it at the nearest available window and not leave it to continue to loose value.