http://www.fairholmefundsinc.com/Documents/PublicConferenceCall20161118.pdf
Fairholme Capital Management Public Conference Call
November 18, 2016
November 18, 2016
David Thompson: Yes, there are three standard remedies for a breach of
contract.
One is expectancy damages, which puts us in the position that we would have been in if there had been no breach of contract. Two is reliance, which is to give us our out-of-pocket costs. The third is restitution. We’re entitled to present evidence of all three and pick the highest.
But, I want to focus on restitution, because I think that is really the concept that is the most relevant here, and it’s pretty simple. You look at the benefits that the breaching party received – and here the breaching party would be Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – and the benefit they received was par value, $25 a share. From that, you would potentially subtract any benefits as they would probably argue for an offset of any dividends that the preferred shareholders received. Now as we know, two thirds of this float was issued in 2007 and 2008. So, for those series the offset from par value would be somewhere between zero and five dollars a share. Thus, we could be looking at damages of $20 a share if we are successful on our breach of contract claim and the court agrees with us about restitution.
One is expectancy damages, which puts us in the position that we would have been in if there had been no breach of contract. Two is reliance, which is to give us our out-of-pocket costs. The third is restitution. We’re entitled to present evidence of all three and pick the highest.
But, I want to focus on restitution, because I think that is really the concept that is the most relevant here, and it’s pretty simple. You look at the benefits that the breaching party received – and here the breaching party would be Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – and the benefit they received was par value, $25 a share. From that, you would potentially subtract any benefits as they would probably argue for an offset of any dividends that the preferred shareholders received. Now as we know, two thirds of this float was issued in 2007 and 2008. So, for those series the offset from par value would be somewhere between zero and five dollars a share. Thus, we could be looking at damages of $20 a share if we are successful on our breach of contract claim and the court agrees with us about restitution.
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