Southern Menhaden Co. v. How

Citations

• 71 Fla. 128
• 70 So. 1000

Syllabus

<p>1. A clause, in a contract for the construction of a manufacturing plant to be occupied by the owner, providing for the payment by the contractor to the owner of a specified sum of money for each day the manufacturing plant should remain unoccupied after a certain day agreed upon between the parties for the completion of the plant, held to be one for liquidated damages and not a penalty where it appears from the circumstances surrounding the formation of the contract, the situation of the parties at the time, the certainty that some damages would accrue to the owner by reason of a failure to comply with the contract on the contractors’ part, but uncertainty as to amount; the difficulty of ascertaining the damage that might accrue and the language of the contract, that it was the intention of the parties to stipulate for damages.</p> <p>2. It is competent for the parties to a building contract to stipulate for the payment of liquidated damages on the failure of the contractor to complete the contract on a day named, where the amount agreed upon from all the circumstances does not appear to have been so unreasonable as to suggest an intention of the parties to provide for a penalty.</p>