For the breach of an obligation arising from contract, the measure of damages, except where otherwise expressly provided by this code, is the amount which will compensate the party aggrieved for all the detriment proximately caused thereby, or which, in the ordinary course of things, would be likely to result therefrom. No damages can be recovered for a breach of contract which are not clearly ascertainable in both their nature and their origin.
S.D. Codified Laws § 21-2-1
General measure of damages for breach of contract--Uncertain damages not recovered
Applied in 42 court decisions — leading case Luke v. American Family Mutual Insurance Co. (1972)
Most recently applied in J. Clancy, Inc. v. Khan Comfort, LLC (November 2022)
Source: CivC 1877, §§ 1947, 1948; CL 1887, § 4581; RCivC 1903, § 2293; RC 1919, § 1966; SDC 1939 & Supp 1960, § 37.1801.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.