摘要: |
Because clauses related to liquidated damages, known as LDs, are so common in construction contracts, many people have come to assume that if the parties agreed to them in the contract, the LD clause must be enforceable. That is not always a correct assumption. The longstanding principle of LDs is that they must bear a reasonable relationship to the actual damages expected to be incurred by the party who will collect them. Stated differendy, if an owner has the right to recover LDs for the late performance of a contractor, the owner must demonstrate that its LD formula and amount reasonably correlate to the costs it expected to incur from not having die facility available to it by the specified contract date. |