Gottschall v. Kapp

Citations

• 47 Pa. Super. 102
• 1911 Pa. Super. LEXIS 119

Syllabus

<p>Contract — Principal and agent — Covenant —■ Damages — Liquidated damages or penalty.</p> <p>1. Where an agent by a written contract with his principal secures an absolute control of the sales of the principal’s product within a large territory for a period of five years, and agrees that at the end of his period of employment he will surrender the route books of the territory to his principal, and agrees in his contract that if he failed in the performance of any of his covenants that his principal shall enter judgment against him in the sum of $1,000 “as liquidated damages,” the court will construe the damages named as liquidated damages and not as a penalty, and will sustain a judgment entered against the agent for $1,000 because of his refusal to surrender the route books to the principal.</p> <p>2. Where a covenant in a contract is for the performance or the nonperformance of a single act or of several acts, damages for the breach of which cannot be measured by any fixed standard, the sum named, if reasonable in amount, will generally be considered as liquidated damages.</p> <p>3. Where a contract consists of several important stipulations, and damages cannot be adequately assessed for a breach of any of the stipulations, the court (except no doubt, in case of great disproportion between the stipulated sum and the actual loss) will enforce the payment of the stipulated sum as liquidated damages.</p>