Opinion ID: 2054217
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Calculation of Damages as of the Date of Breach

Text: Conceptually, all damages as of the date of breach are prospective, and yet the trial on damages will typically take place several months (or even years) later. This means there will be a pretrial period for which actual damages can be ascertained, as well as a post-trial period of future damages. Accordingly, in a variety of situations, courts have commonly recognized two separate calculations of damages beginning, as the case may be, from the date of injury or breach: (1) the damages actually realized before trial, and (2) the damages for the period after trial calculated on the basis of estimates discounted to the date of trial. See Deakle v. John E. Graham & Sons, 756 F.2d 821, 828-29 (11th Cir.1985) (lost wages for partial disability); In re Air Crash Disaster Near Chicago, Illinois, on May 25, 1979, 644 F.2d 633, 642-44 (7th Cir.1981) (wrongful death); Taylor Publishing, 686 S.W.2d at 216-17 (anticipatory breach of lease). This two-part analysis is apparently justified in the theory that, because accurate damages can be ascertained for the period between breach and trial, such actual damages should not be ignored in favor of a calculation for that period based on a less exact, hindsight estimate as though no provable damage had yet occurred. In short, under this approach the damages are a combination of actual pretrial damages and predicted post-trial damages, the latter being a sum discounted to the date of trial. Section 12.4 of the Smith-CUIC lease specifically calls for calculation of all damages as of the date of the breach. See supra note 12. Smith's evidence of damages, however, reflected the more typical bifurcated approach: (1) actual pretrial damages and (2) estimated post-trial damages, discounted to the date of trial. We therefore confront this question: Can Smith's proof of damages at trial be said to equal the total damages that would have been calculated, as § 12.4 requires, by using entirely prospective estimates from the date of breach, discounted to the date of the breach? This inquiry spawns two subsidiary questions: (1) Because the damages that accrue during the period between breach and trial are not discounted, will such use of actual damages improperly inflate the damages awardable for that period? (2) Because real estate market conditions can dramatically change over-night, can one say that actual damages for the period between breach and trial will equal the damages calculable on the basis of estimates for that period entirely as of the date of the breach, before any market change occurs?