Obligations for Reasonable Mitigation
Duty to avoid unnecessarily large losses or damages
Page last modified : December 06 2023
What Is the Mitigation Principle?
The duty to mitigate entails the person who has been harmed taking reasonable steps to limit the harm. Failure to mitigate may reduce the amount recoverable through litigation.
Understanding the Duty to Mitigate Losses by Minimizing Losses, as well as the Required Standard of Efforts to Do So
In a conscientious society, reasonably minded people desire to avoid waste; as a result, the law imposes the mitigation principle, which is a duty to mitigate, on a harmed party. This legal notion demanding mitigation measures applies to all areas of law, including tort law, contract law, employment law, and construction law, among others.
The Law
The notion of mitigation was fully explained, but the Supreme Court stated in general in Southcott Estates Inc. v. Toronto Catholic District School Board, [2012] 2 S.C.R. 675, that:
As a result, the responsibility to mitigate requires a person who has been damaged to lessen the harm incurred. Failure to mitigate the harm may, and almost certainly will, reduce the amount that the wrongdoer will owe the harmed person in a culpability determination at a court trial. As the Supreme Court indicated above in the Southcott Estates case, where a failure to mitigate occurs, it is the Plaintiff’s failure to act reasonably to lessen the loss that causes a portion of the injury. Simply put, if the Defendant does anything wrong that causes harm to the Plaintiff, the Defendant is only liable for the portion of the harm that is directly caused by the Defendant’s conduct and not for the remainder of the harm.
Summary Comment
The law required that a Plaintiff (or, in the case of a counterclaim against the Plaintiff, a Defendant) take reasonable steps to mitigate, or decrease, losses. When a person fails to take reasonable steps to mitigate (reduce losses), the law will disallow claims, or the amounts within claims, that arose as a result of the failure to mitigate, whereas the law views the losses that arise as a result of the victim’s inaction rather than the wrongdoer’s action. When the Defendant alleges failure to mitigate, it is the Defendant’s responsibility to prove that the Plaintiff failed to mitigate and that a reasonable opportunity to mitigate was available; additionally, the Plaintiff is required to take reasonable steps to mitigate.
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shemesh Legal Offices attends:
Landlord Tenant Board
(Toronto South LTB)
15 Grosvenor Street
Toronto, Ontario, M7A 2G6
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Superior Court of Justice
(Kitchener Waterloo Courthouse)
85 Frederick Street
Kitchener, Ontario, N2H 0A7
Ian Shemesh represented us in a landlord and Tenant Board hearing against our tenant. He was very quick on his feet and prepared. He knew exactly what he was doing and what he was talking about. He was very good with us and he was with us every step of the way. I would highly recommend him and his team.
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