Wassenaar v. Panos

Towne Hotel (defendant) terminated general manager Wassenaar (plaintiff) 21 months before his three-year contract expired; the contract's liquidated-damages clause entitled him to full remaining salary upon termination, and though he found new work within a couple of months, the circuit court held he was not required to mitigate and a jury awarded him the full $24,640 stipulated amount. The court of appeals reversed, finding the clause void as a penalty because lost salary was easy to calculate and the formula ignored mitigation; Wassenaar petitioned for review.