différence de valeur

CONT: ... where the plaintiff claims to be put into ""the same situation... as if the contract had been performed,"" there are two quite distinct bases of assessment: difference in value and cost of cure. The practical difference between the two bases is strikingly illustrated by an American case in which a coal company took a mining lease of farmland, covenanting to restore the land to its original state at the end of the lease. The cost of doing the work would have been $29,000, but the result of not doing it was to reduce the value of the land by only $300. Damages for the company's failure to do the work were assessed at the latter. In English law damages for breach of a tenant's covenant to repair are by statute assessed on a ""difference in value"" basis.