Читать книгу Canadian Business Contracts Handbook - Nishan Swais - Страница 50

In addition to an obligation to mitigate, a party claiming compensation might also be subject to scrutiny about its own role in the occurrence of any loss, harm, or injury. If the injured party contributed to the breach, then the damages awarded by a court will take this into account and be reduced accordingly.

Returning to our example, suppose a court found that the destruction of the fuel storage tanks was not too remote to be compensable through an award of damages. Now suppose further that the fuel storage tanks were not properly protected according to safety regulations or the forklift driver not properly trained. Is it then fair to say that the destruction of those tanks was caused solely by the defective brakes? Would it not be fairer to say that the defective brakes only partially contributed to that destruction? Certainly, that is how a court would see it and would award damages proportionately according the parties’ relative contribution to the losses suffered.