Defendant did not apply for a building permit until August 1998. Plaintiff on 2 March 1999 filed a Motion to Enforce the Settlement against Defendant. Defendant now appeals. Hayes v. National Serv. An error of law is an abuse of discretion per se .
Principles governing general contract law apply to interpret settlement agreements.
And, even though this settlement agreement arose under the ADA, state contract law directs our analysis here. But liquidated damages are inappropriate when they serve only to punish the breaching party. For the first element, potential damages arising from breach of this settlement agreement are not readily ascertainable. Thus, some amount of liquidated damages might be appropriate in this context. The amount of liquidated damages provided by the settlement agreement, however, is grossly disproportionate to the damages reasonably expected to flow from the breach.