§ 113.003.Remedies

The remedy section is written as a permission followed by a subtraction.

Any remedy available for breach of contract is on the table, so long as it is not inconsistent with the terms of the contract itself.

Two remedies are named. The cost of cover — what the buyer pays to get replacement water elsewhere — and specific performance.

Cover is the practical remedy here. A generator that loses its supply buys water somewhere else at a higher price, and the difference is the loss.

Specific performance matters where cover is impossible. Water rights are not fungible, and no amount of money creates a second source in a dry basin.

Consequential damages are barred. The lost revenue from a plant that could not run is the largest number in the case, and it is the number the legislature took away.

Exemplary damages are barred too, which keeps the exposure to what the contract itself is worth.

The contract can narrow this further. Remedies must not be inconsistent with the contract’s terms, so a negotiated limit still governs.

Cover is measured by what replacement costs. The remedy asks what the purchaser paid to obtain water elsewhere, not what the failure did to the rest of the business.

The court is applying the contract, not rewriting it. A remedy inconsistent with the agreement is unavailable however sympathetic the failure, which puts the negotiating table ahead of the courthouse.