Hawkins v. McGee: What the Hairy Hand Told Us About Expectation Damages in Contract Law Remedies

The famous Case of the Hairy Hand is more than just a good story. It's also a fundamental lesson in how courts thing about remedies for contractual breach. This case-available with my annotations at bit.ly/HairyHand-discusses why expectation damages are the usual remedy for a breach of contract, why punitive damages are generally unavailable under contract law, and more key lessons for lawyers and law students. This makes the case a good introduction into the study of contractual remedies in general and expectationary damages in particular.
1:00 Facts of the Case
2:26 The Trial Court's Legal Error
4:24 Calculating Loss in Value of the Hand: giving the injured party the expected benefit of the bargain
6:40 Difficulty of Calculating the Cost of Complete Performance
8:01 Why Loss in Volume Doesn't Make Sense Here
10:02 Reliance Damages: restoring the injured party to the position he would have been in if the contract were never made
Read the case at bit.ly/HairyHand

[@nnnnnnnnbbbbbb]

Thanks for the video

[@lotusgrl444]

I forgot the justification, but why couldn't he sue for medical negligence!?

[@BizLaw]

The patient did sue the doctors insurance policy in a separate case, McGee v. U.S. Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 53 F. 2d 953 (1st Cir. 1931). The court ruled that the insurance policy did not cover the “special contract” promising a perfect hand. I wasn’t able to find a suit for negligence against the doctor. Unfortunately I don’t know enough about the history of the tort of negligence as applied to doctors, but I suppose the doctor didn’t violate any standard of care. You might think of it like this: the promise he made was above and beyond even what insurance would cover, and so that promise of a perfect hand was a promise to go way above and beyond the standard of care for negligence. We often speak of contracts and making voluntarily liabilities and torts involuntary ones. Perhaps although the doctor created a voluntary liability by offering a perfect hand the law would not impose additional involuntary liabilities for failing to meet that lofty promise.

[@warjdani]

I would've said the operation was not completed yet. I would pay for hair removal electrolytes.