Sunshine Vacation Villas v. Hudson Bay Company [1984] BCCA Facts: Plaintiff was granted licences to operate travel agencies in HBC’s stores in BC and contracted for another four in Vancouver and Victoria starting in Spring 1977, after it would terminate the contracts with the travel agencies who were currently there. In April 1977, the plaintiff discovered that defendant had renewed the licences with the other agencies, thus reneging on the deal. But the plaintiff carried on the negotiations, and in hope of winning the licences incurred expenses of $195,000.
Issue: What damages are available to the plaintiff?
Rule / Reasoning = the plaintiff must elect to acquire either (1) reliance or (2) expectation damages -but not both! (Reliance damages cannot be coupled with expectation damages; only one can be recovered given that they are alternatives).
Reliance = loss of capital/wasted expenditures;
Expectation damages = loss of profit.
On the facts, the expectation damages here would be too speculative - so loss of capital (reliance) was recovered.
