Sijil Agensi Harta Tanah

Semester 1
CEA 1023
 CONTENTS
Introduction
Damages or compensation
Specific Performance
Rescission
Injunction
Quantum Meruit (adequate)
 INTRODUCTION
§ As a general principle, once a party enters
into a contract, he must perform his
obligations strictly according to the terms of
the contract.
§ Breach of contract occurs when a party to a
contract fails to perform, precisely and
exactly his obligations under the contract.
§ In other words, breach of contract means
failing to perform any term of a contract
without a legitimate legal excuses.
§ For example:
a) Not completing a job
b) Not paying in full OR on time
c) Failure to deliver all the goods
d) Being late without excuses
e) OR any act shows the party will not complete the work.

§ When one party refuses to perform their

obligations under the contract or performs
them defectively, there are several possible
remedies available.
The innocent party may claim for any one or
more of the following remedies:

3. Rescission

2. Specific
Performance 4. Injunction

5. Quantum
1. Damages or Types of
Meruit
compensation Remedies
(adequate)
 1. DAMAGES OR
COMPENSATION
§ Breach of contract occurs when a party fails to
perform some primary obligation under the
contract and the major remedy is usually an
action for damages award.
§ This is monetary compensation that must be
made by the breaching party to compensate
the other party for losses connected with the
breach.
§ The objective for award of damages is to
place innocent party, so far as money can do
it, in the same position as he would have been
if the contract had been performed.
§ Damages or compensation is a monetary
claim for a breach of contract Section 74 and
75 of the Contract Act governs the rules
relating to claim for compensation.
§ The rules for the granting of compensation
are:
− The party may recover compensation for loss or
damage which naturally arose in the usual
course of things – natural loss, from the first
limb of Section 74(1).
− The party may recover compensation for loss or
damage which the parties knew when they
made the contract to be likely to result from the
breach of contract – special loss, from use
second limb of section 74(1).
− No compensation will be granted for any loss or
damage that is too remote – Section 74(2).
− The plaintiff has the duty to mitigate his own
loss or damage.
2. SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE
§ Specific performance is an order of the court
directing the party to the contract to perform
exactly the obligation under the terms of the
contract.
§ Specific performance is an equitable relief, and
like all equitable relief is discretionary in
nature.
§ “Specific relief is given by ordering a party to
do the very act which he is under an
obligation to do” – Section 4 of the Specific
Relief Act 1950.
 3. RESCISSION
§ Rescission may take place when:
i. Restoration of parties to their original positions
is possible
ii. No 3rd party suffer from the rescission.
§ It involves the cancellation of the
contract and restoration of the parties
to the state they were in before the
contract was made.
§ When a promissory fails to perform his
obligations or to tender performance,
there is a breach of the contract which
entitles the innocent party to repudiate
the contract. Section 40 provides:
“When a party to a contract has refused to perform, or
disable himself from performing, his promise in its
entirely, the promise may put an end to the contract,
unless he has signified, by words or conduct, his
acquiescence in its continuance.”
§ The right to ‘put an end to the contract’
may arise in two circumstances, namely
the refusal by the promisor to perform
or has disable himself from performing.
§ The innocent party (promisee) has the
option either to continue with the
contract and claim damages or
repudiate the contract.
 4. INJUNCTION
§ It is an order by court.
§ Order for forbidding the initiation or the
continuance of some act or state of affairs or
commanding that an act can be done.
 5. QUANTUM MERUIT
(ADEQUATE)
§ In the context of contract law, it means
something along the lines of "reasonable
value of services".
§ Aggrieved party may apply for a total
payment of what he had done in the
contract. Most often this arises where there
has been a contract but it has been
frustrated, made void, terminated, or is
otherwise unenforceable.
§ For example, if a company refuses to
continue the contract, the aggrieved party
can get paid for the work to the extent that
he did.
§ A party can claim on a quantum meruit (“as
much as he has deserved”) where the
contract makes no express provision for
remuneration. Examples if a contract for the
sale of goods does not fix the price, the
buyer must pay a reasonable price.