Neil Foster wrote:
Dear Jason and others
Like you I can't put my finger on a specific case. But I note that in his excellent article on the background to Lumley, “Johanna Wagner And The Rival Opera Houses” (2001) 117 Law Quarterly Review 431-458 at n 20 Stephen Waddams referred to the pre-Lumley case of a singer named Jenny Lind who had been induced to break an exclusive contract and was forced to pay damages for breach, where
The amount of damages awarded against Lind was £2,500 (later settled for £2,000), but the takings of the theatre in 1847 for 39 nights of her performances were stated to be the enormous sum of £45,924, 6s.
So in theory if the contract breaker themselves was only subject to a particular fixed penalty for breach, but the breach of contract would lead to loss by the promoter of that sort of money, one could see how the tortfeasor might be required to pay the larger amount. But, as I say, right now I can't think of any cases where this has actually been the result - maybe because contracts don't often have the sort of "liquidated damages" clauses I have to suppose here?
