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- Title
Two Wrongs Can Make Two Rights: Why Courts Should Allow Tortious Recovery for Intentional Concealment of Contract Breach.
- Authors
Paskoff Chang, Catherine
- Abstract
When a contract is breached, recovery for the breach is limited to the damages that arose "naturally" from the breach or were "foreseeable." In limiting damages for breach to the loss caused by the broken, promise itself, the law promotes various values, including efficiency, market principles, and freedom to contract. Tort law, in an effort to serve social policy by deterring wrongful conduct, permits recovery to extend beyond the immediate loss and even allows punitive damages. These distinctions break down when wrongful conduct (i.e., a tort) occurs in the context of a contractual relationship. This Note examines one such overlap -- concealment of breach of contract -- and argues that courts should recognize concealment of contract breach as a tort independent of the underlying breach of contract. This Note contends that consistent recognition of this conduct as an independent tort would (1) promote public policy by protecting both the public's interest in the procedural aspects of contract law and its interest in the substantive elements of many contracts, (2) enhance society's sense of fairness and justice in the contract principles it has devised, and (3) be consistent with other approaches to wrongful concealment in the law of tort and punitive damages.
- Subjects
BREACH of contract; EXEMPLARY damages; DAMAGES (Law); CONTRACTS; TORTS; DISCHARGE of contracts
- Publication
Columbia Journal of Law & Social Problems, 2005, Vol 39, Issue 1, p47
- ISSN
0010-1923
- Publication type
Article