Sal owns a building just on the Manhattan side of the Queens Midtown Tunnel in New York City, and it has a fantastic space for a billboard advertisement. This space is very valuable to advertisers, given the thousands and thousands of people who drive past the spot and have no choice but to look at the billboard as they emerge from the tunnel. Sal makes a contract with James—an advertiser—for James to place a billboard on that spot on the side of Sal’s building for a thirty-year term.

But, five years later, Sal promptly cancels James’s lease contract, even though it had many years remaining. This is obviously a breach of contract, so James sues Sal. Can James force Sal to place the billboard, or can he only receive money damages?

A. Specific performance: the billboard location is real estate, and extremely unique and commercially valuable real estate, at that. This is clearly a case for specific performance.

B. Money damages: James is losing out on a commercial enterprise and should simply receive the value of that. The court should not involve itself in enforcing this promise specifically.

3b. Assuming, then, that James would be awarded money damages, we can do an exercise in calculating what those damages would be. Below are some relevant facts and numbers. Read them, calculate what James’s damages against Sal should be, and type that answer in the box below.

• James can reasonably show that he lost $450,000 in profit once he was kicked off of the billboard space
• Using the alternate billboard space, James could make $300,000 in projected earnings over the next 25 years
• Sal must pay $35,000 to clean the space after James’s billboard is removed before he can use that side of the building again
• The contract was breached after exactly 5 years had passed, leaving 25 years remaining on the lease
• James must incur $1,000 to find the new location, and $10,000 to erect his sign, neither is included in his projected earnings
• Sal and James both paid legal fees, but these should not be added to calculate the damages.
What are James’s damages against Sal? (Please enter all digits and no commas).

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

The specific performance remedy would require Sal to allow James to place his billboard on the side ... View the full answer