An obligation to mitigate damages is required in civil law, meaning a plaintiff must take reasonable steps to limit or minimize damages. Examples include a landlord re-letting a property and an injured actor finding other work. The duty to mitigate harm is reasonable under the circumstances and prevents unfair profit from the defendant’s tort.
In many jurisdictions around the world, an obligation to mitigate damages is required under civil law. In essence, a duty to mitigate damages means that a potential plaintiff cannot just sit back and let damages build without doing something to limit or minimize the accumulation of damages. In many cases, a court will not allow a plaintiff to collect damages beyond the point at which he could reasonably have stopped prosecuting.
A landlord-tenant dispute is a prime example of when an obligation to mitigate damages is often present. When a landlord becomes aware that a tenant has vacated a property before the expiry of the agreed termination date of the lease, the landlord often has a duty to attempt to re-let the property as soon as reasonably practicable. If, for example, the tenant has vacated the property for six months into a 12-month lease, the landlord cannot simply leave the property vacant and then claim damages for the entire six-month period that the property it was vacant.
Another example of when the obligation to mitigate damages arises is in construction contract disputes. When a prospective plaintiff becomes aware that a repair has not been performed to the contractor’s satisfaction, the plaintiff may have a duty to ask another contractor to fix the problem so that no further damage occurs as a result of the work original. If the plaintiff fails to make a reasonable attempt to mitigate damages, a court may limit the amount of the judgment rendered against the contractor. Finally, the defendant may be sentenced to pay the costs of repairing the original work.
A personal injury incident is yet another example of where a duty to mitigate is often encountered. An actor who is injured as a result of an accident and therefore unable to perform the duties of his regular job may also be required to mitigate the injuries by trying to find other work for him to perform. Of course, an actor’s injuries can prevent him from doing any kind of work; however, the idea is that if other work is possible, then he must take the job or his damages will be limited.
The duty to mitigate harm has a reasonableness component. A prospective plaintiff should only do what is reasonable, under the circumstances, to minimize or limit damages. Of course, a plaintiff is not required to go to great lengths to limit the damages caused by another person, but, at the same time, the plaintiff cannot unfairly profit from the defendant’s tort.
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