Rattigan v. Commodore International Ltd.

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• finding plaintiff employee entitled to accelerated contract benefits following his involuntary resignation
• even where party describes provision as one for liquidated damages, courts have tended, in close cases, to construe as penalty rather than as liquidated damages
• liquidated damages provision not a penalty clause if lump sum payment due upon termination is not discounted to its present value
• “[D]efendant has the burden of proving that the liquidated damage clause to which it freely contracted to is, in fact, a penalty.”
• “Courts have tended, in doubtful cases, ‘to favor the construction which makes the sum payable for breach of contract a penalty rather than liquidated damages, even where the parties have styled it liquidated damages rather than a penalty.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).