Thus, the impact of the breach on the promisee is to be effectively "undone" with the award of expectation damages.
[1] The purpose of expectation damages is to put the non-breaching party in the position it would have occupied had the contract been fulfilled.
[4] In Robinson v Harman, B Parke of the Exchequer Court established that under the rule of common law as per Hopkins v. Grazebrook, the plaintiff is entitled to recover damages, to what means money can, as if the contract had been performed.
[7][8] In expectation damages, the measure of damages is the difference between what was given and what was promised, along with consequential and incidental expenses minus any payments received from the breaching party and any costs saved as a result of the breach.
However, it is important to note that expectation damages are not punitive; its theoretical purpose is to place the injured, non-breaching party in the same position that they would have occupied had there been full performance of the contract.