What is specific performance in a contract dispute in San Diego?  “Specific Performance” is the legal term for forcing a party in a contract to deliver on the specific promises they made in the original agreement.  In reality, specific performance is rarely available under the law as a remedy for the Court outside of real estate transactions.  Usually, any lawsuit that seeks specific performance is associated with a buyer or seller who is seeking to enforce the terms of a real estate contract.  A buyer is often also able to pursue additional financial damages associated with the failure of a seller to perform on the terms of a real estate contract.

The Courts here in San Diego and Southern California resolve contract disputes in the form of “damages”, a financial figure that accounts for the failure to perform, and allows the injured party to recover all costs to achieve the “benefit of the bargain.” In other words, to cover all costs with finding another vendor, loss of contracts or opportunity and any expense needed to help them recover from the breach of contract to a point that is equivalent to where they would have been if the contract had been fulfilled.  It is quite rare to seek specific performance on a contract in San Diego in a business context.

What is specific performance in a contract dispute in California?  Is it available in your unique circumstances? These are complex cases, and it is important to have experienced and aggressive business and contract attorneys who will develop strong agreements at the outset, and work to protect your best business interests at every step of the way.

Pro-Tip: “Real estate in California and everywhere else is unique. And I say that on purpose. It’s unique, meaning a Rembrandt is unique. And according to the law, art and residential real estate is unique. Meaning you can’t just give somebody a bunch of money saying, I’m sorry, I’m keeping your property, or I’m not selling the property because here’s the money, it’s irreplaceable. It’s unique.

So if you have a contract with somebody to buy their unique property and you performed all the obligations, you can get something called specific performance. You can get a judge to order ‘No, no, you can’t buy your way out of this. You have to give them the property.’ This kind of thing happens.

Let’s say you have this real estate, you’re at escrow to sell it. You got 10 acres and then you find out before close that oh my gosh, they’re changing where the road’s going now there’s going to be a freeway here and half of yours is now commercial property, and then it’s worth 10 times as much. So you don’t want to sell. It’s unique. You do have to sell, but you’re going to fight like heck, that changes the price and switch it. It’s not even that dramatic. It happens all the time. You have people in escrow, I get ’em five, 10 times a year, you’re in escrow to buy a piece of property and the seller says, I’m not selling to you. And it turns out they had another offer for a hundred thousand dollars more and they just say, Nope, Sue me. And we do!” – Dan Watkins, Founding Partner

If a contract is breached there are usually many options available to work through the challenge and accomplish the business at hand. The Watkins firm is able to resolve the vast majority of our breach of contract disputes through leveraged negotiation.  This is the fastest, and least expensive path to resolve any dispute.  We also represent clients in business mediation or arbitration.  Are you the concerned about a potential breach of contract? Do you need additional information regarding what is specific performance in a contract dispute in San Diego?  We invite you to review our podcast Episode 34 – Real Estate Disputes as well as the strong recommendations of our clients and contact the Watkins Firm or call 858-535-1511 for a complimentary consultation today.