Alaska Civil Pattern Jury Instruction 24.09H

If you find in favor of [plaintiff] on [his her its] claim for breach of contract, you must decide how much money, if any, will fairly compensate [plaintiff] for a financial loss caused by [defendant’s] breach of the contract. This compensation is called compensatory damages.

As compensatory damages, [plaintiff] claims the amount that [he she it] spent [preparing to perform] [performing] [his her its] obligations under the contract.

To award these compensatory damages to [plaintiff] for [defendant’s] breach of contract, you must find that it is more likely true than not true that:

(1) [Plaintiff] spent money [preparing to perform] [performing] [his her its] obligations under the contract;

(2) When [plaintiff] and [defendant] entered into the contract, [defendant] knew or could have reasonably foreseen that [plaintiff] would spend money to perform the contract. Such expenses are reasonably foreseeable if either:

1) the expense follows in the ordinary course of events from the contract; or

2) the expense follows from special circumstances that [defendant] had reason to know about when the parties entered into the contract.

(3) [Plaintiff] has established the amount of [his her its] expenses with reasonable certainty.

An award of compensatory damages must be based on evidence, and not on speculation, guesswork or conjecture.

[If these requirements for an award of damages are met, you must consider whether it is more likely true than not true that [plaintiff] would have lost money on the contract if both parties had performed as originally promised. If so, you must reduce the amount that you would otherwise award to [plaintiff] for [his her its] expenses by the amount that [plaintiff] would have lost if both parties had performed the contract as originally promised.]

If you decide that these requirements for an award of compensatory damages have not been met, you cannot award compensatory damages to [plaintiff]. Instead, you must award [plaintiff] nominal damages. In a moment, I will instruct you regarding an award of nominal damages.