MBE Rules · Contracts
Duty to mitigate
The rule
The non-breaching party may not recover damages they could have avoided through reasonable effort. The burden is on the breaching party to show damages could have been mitigated. Does not require extraordinary measures or substantial risk.
In plain English
If someone breaks a contract with you, you can't just sit back and let damages pile up. You need to try to reduce the harm by taking reasonable steps.
Worked example
A tenant breaks a lease early. The landlord must try to find a new tenant to reduce lost rent. If the landlord doesn't try, they can't claim all the lost rent from the original tenant.
Memory hook
Mitigation: Minimize Loss, Maximize Gain. Breached? Act reasonably, don't just wait for a payout.
The trap
Students think: Any effort suffices for mitigation. Wrong, because efforts must be reasonable, not just any action. The actual test is reasonable effort without extraordinary measures.
How examiners test it
MBE loves: employee fired without cause, finds new job. Question: duty to mitigate? Trap: students overlook that job must be comparable to mitigate properly.
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