4541. Contractors Damages Breach Of Contract Change Orders-Extra Work-Total Cost Recovery

4541. Contractor's Damages for Breach of Construction Contract--Change Orders/Extra Work--Total Cost Recovery Instruction No 1 Request by Plaintiff Given as Proposed Refused Withdrawn Request by Defendant Given as Modified Requested by Given on Court's Motion Judge Instruction No 1 [Name of plaintiff] contends that [name of defendant] breached the parties' contract by increasing or changing the scope of the [project/describe construction project, e.g., apartment building] beyond what was required by the parties' contract. [Name of plaintiff], therefore, seeks to recover the total cost of all of [his/her/its] work on the [project/e.g., apartment building]. In order to recover the total cost of all of [his/her/its] work, [name of plaintiff] must prove all of the following: 1. That the scope of work under the original contract had been altered by the changes so much that the final project was significantly different from the original project; That because of the scope of the changes, it is not practical to prove the actual additional costs caused by each change demanded by [name of defendant]; That [name of plaintiff]'s original bid that was accepted by [name of defendant] was reasonable; That [name of plaintiff]'s actual costs were reasonable; and That [name of plaintiff] was not responsible for incurring the additional costs. 2. 3. 4. 5. If you find that [name of plaintiff] has established all of the above, determine [name of plaintiff]'s damages by subtracting the contract price from the total cost 4541. Contractor's Damages for Breach of Construction Contract--Change Orders/Extra Work--Total Cost Recovery Instruction No 1 Request by Plaintiff Given as Proposed Refused Withdrawn Request by Defendant Given as Modified Requested by Given on Court's Motion Judge Instruction No 1 of [name of plaintiff]'s performance of the work. ________________________________________________________________________________ New December 2010