Duty to mitigate — MCQs

All questions with answers and explanations

Read the full set here, or use the practice card above to test yourself one question at a time.

1. The statutory basis for the duty to mitigate is found in:

   • The Explanation to Section 73 (correct answer)
   • Section 56
   • Section 10
   • Section 2(h)

   Explanation. The Explanation to Section 73 requires that means of remedying inconvenience be taken into account when estimating loss.

2. Loss that the injured party could have avoided through reasonable steps is:

   • Fully recoverable regardless
   • Not recoverable as damages (correct answer)
   • Recoverable only in criminal cases
   • Doubled as a penalty

   Explanation. Avoidable loss is excluded from the damages calculation once a reasonable alternative existed.

3. The standard expected of an injured party in mitigating loss is:

   • Extraordinary and risky action
   • Reasonableness, not extraordinary action (correct answer)
   • No action at all is required
   • Only action approved by the wrongdoer

   Explanation. The injured party must take only reasonable steps — not unusual, risky, or financially dangerous ones.

4. In British Westinghouse v. Underground Electric Railways, the House of Lords held that:

   • Savings from reasonable mitigation must be set off against damages (correct answer)
   • The buyer had no duty to mitigate at all
   • The defective turbines had to be used as delivered
   • Mitigation gains belong entirely to the claimant

   Explanation. The savings the buyers gained from more efficient replacement turbines, obtained through their own reasonable mitigation, had to be set off against their damages claim.

5. Which of the following is NOT required of an injured party under the duty to mitigate?

   • Taking ordinary, sensible steps to reduce loss
   • Spending money the claimant doesn't have or risking their credit (correct answer)
   • Recovering reasonable expenses incurred while mitigating
   • Accepting a genuinely fair alternative arrangement

   Explanation. The claimant is never required to risk their own money, credit, or reputation as part of reasonable mitigation.

6. Failing to mitigate loss results in:

   • A separate lawsuit against the injured party
   • A reduction in the damages recoverable, limited to the avoidable portion (correct answer)
   • Criminal liability
   • Automatic forfeiture of the entire claim

   Explanation. Failing to mitigate is not independently actionable — it only reduces recoverable damages by the avoidable portion.

7. If a manufacturer stops production instead of buying an available, equivalent raw material from an alternative supplier after a breach, the manufacturer:

   • Can recover the full value of lost production
   • Can likely recover only the minor extra cost of switching, not the full lost production value (correct answer)
   • Has no remedy at all
   • Must sue the alternative supplier instead

   Explanation. Since the loss was largely avoidable by sourcing from the readily available alternative supplier, most of the lost production value is not recoverable.

8. The "duty" to mitigate is best understood as:

   • An independent legal obligation the breaching party can sue for
   • A limitation on the amount of damages recoverable, not a separate cause of action (correct answer)
   • A criminal duty under the IPC
   • A duty owed only in commercial contracts

   Explanation. There is no independent cause of action for failing to mitigate — it purely limits the damages a court will award.