ADDIS v GRAMOPHONE CO. LTD (1909)

Where a servant is wrongfully dismissed from his employment the damages for the dismissal cannot include compensation for the manner of the dismissal, for his injured feelings, or for the loss he may sustain from the fact that the dismissal of itself makes it more difficult for him to obtain fresh employment.

I have always understood that damages for breach of contract were in the nature of compensation, not punishment. There are three well-known exceptions to the general rule, applicable to the measure of damages for breach of contract, namely, actions against a banker for refusing to pay a customer's cheque when he has in his hands funds of the customer's to meet it, actions for breach of promise of marriage, and actions like that in Flureau v Thornhill 2 Wm Bl…