Award Of Damages

Damages are a remedy in the form of a monitory award to be paid to a claimant as compensation for loss or injury. To warrant the award, the claimant must show that a breach of duty has caused foreseeable loss. To be recognised at law, the loss must involve damages to property, or physical injury. There are special damages, which are; economic losses such as loss of earnings, property damages and medical expenses. In the law of contract, general damages are there damages which the law implies in every breach and every violation of a legal right. See Gari v. Seirafina Nig. Ltd (207) LPELR-8397 (CA).
Damages as stated earlier is classified generally into general and special damages. General damages are damages which the law in its wisdom, presumes to flow automatically from the wrong inflicted on a claimant by a defendant from whom they are claimed and do not need or have to be specifically pleaded which special damages on the other hand are specific and peculiar losses suffered as a result of the wrongful act or contract of a defendant. The damages are special in the sense that they are easily discernible and quantifiable. The distinction between general and special damages is mainly matter of pleading and evidence. But it must be stressed that in the law of contract, there is no dichotomy between special and general damages as it is in the law of tort.
Losses classified as special damages are those whose monetary value can be easily calculated, rather than the often move-difficult to calculate general damages. General damages are awarded for things that do not care with a price tag such as loss of reputation or for emotional pain and suffering. When a person makes a claim for damages he must prove the amount of damages that he is requesting. Generally the move a person suffer the higher the damage award he may request. If the claimant is not sure how much to ask for when inculcating damages he might aim for an estimate. The reason why the claimant should aim for a higher number is because the judge cannot grant more then what is requested, but he can grant loss.
In cases of contract special or exceptional damages cannot be claimed unless such damages were within the contemplation of both parties at the time of contract…unable to see what difference it can make whether you claim for damages generally and shew that an award of general damages would conclude and cover a special loss from which you seek compensation for a special loss and shew that the loss would be more than covered or compensated by an award of general damages.
In conclusion I will like to state that various types of damages are distinguished for different purposes general damages is such damage as the law pressures to result from the infringement of a legal right or duly. Special damages must be specifically pleaded as stated earlier and evidence relevant to it cannot be adduced if only general damages have been pleaded, since the purpose of pleading special damage is to prevent surprise at the trial by giving the defendant prior notice of any item in the claim for which a definite amount can be given in evidence. (See chitty on contract, Twenty-third Edition).

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