Damages are a legal relief referring to the sums, assessed in
monetary terms, paid to a successful party arising from the
wrongful conduct of another party. Damages are generally
compensatory in character, as opposed to punitive or vindicatory in
nature.
The plaintiff is responsible for proving the losses for which
damages are claimed were caused by the defendant on the balance of
probabilitiesi. This requires the
plaintiff to establish that:
- The defendant's actions were directly connected with, or
substantially caused, by every loss for which the plaintiff seeks
damagesii (causation);
- The plaintiff took reasonable steps to fulfil its duty to
ensure continuing losses were not exacerbated by extraneous factors
(mitigation), such as the plaintiff's own
carelessnessiii; and
