First of all, it should be pointed out that few countries in the world recognize the compensation for mental damages for breach of contract, such as Germany, France, Japan, etc., and none of them recognize the compensation for mental damages for breach of contract. The main reason is that the breach of contract mainly causes property damage to one party, and the property damage is filled with property, so the injured party can get enough compensation and should not ask for compensation for mental damage. However, some countries, such as Switzerland, Britain and the United States, recognize compensation for mental damages for breach of contract. But its theoretical explanation is still based on tort. For example, British and American law scholars believe that "if one party causes mental damage to the other party due to breach of contract, the other party may exercise the right of claim for compensation, but this kind of compensation is nominal, ostensibly the liability for breach of contract, and should be regarded as tort liability in essence."
At present, China's legislation and judicial practice do not recognize compensation for mental damage caused by breach of contract. First of all, there is no provision on compensation for mental damage caused by breach of contract in legislation and judicial interpretation; Secondly, the court decided not to support the claim for compensation for mental damage caused by breach of contract. For example, Wu Mou was frightened by rats on the train from Urumqi to Luoyang and demanded compensation for mental damage. Urumqi Railway Transport Court rejected Wu Mou's claim. Another example is Hainan's "Journey with Death" 15 case in which tourists v. Hainan China Youth Travel Agency for spiritual compensation of more than one million yuan. Although the court held that Hainan Youth Travel Service constituted a breach of contract, it did not support 15' s claim for mental compensation for tourists. However, the court does not deny the compensation for mental damage caused by breach of contract. For example, five engineers and technicians from Suzhou Valve Factory want to go to Iran to discuss cooperation. Because the airline ticket salesmen missed their names in the computer, they were detained as stowaways during their connecting flight in Bangkok, and then they returned to their original starting point, Shanghai. Afterwards, they negotiated with the responsible party to compensate for the losses and mental damage. The other party first refused on the grounds of "no precedent". Later, they filed a lawsuit with the court. Under the auspices of the court, a mediation agreement was finally reached, and the plaintiff received compensation of 45 thousand yuan except air tickets, accommodation and lost time. This kind of "additional compensation" has the nature of compensation for mental damage. However, it should be pointed out that this is a mediation agreement reached under the auspices of the court, not a court judgment. At present, there are no cases supported by court decisions in this regard. This may be related to the fact that the courts in China follow the logic of handling cases in continental law, that is, since there is no provision in the law, the courts cannot support it.
But in fact, breach of contract does cause mental damage to the other party, and sometimes this damage is even huge. For example, there is a case in which a man in his fifties lent his life savings to a relative to do business. Unexpectedly, relatives squandered all their money and never paid him back. The man was complained by his family, depressed and unhappy, then became ill and eventually died. After the incident, his family appealed to the court, demanding that the relative pay back the money, and demanding compensation for the death of mental damage compensation. The court did not support his request for compensation for mental damage. The author believes that although the court did not support the claim for compensation for mental damage of the family members of the deceased, it does not mean that their mental damage does not exist.
Since there is damage, there should be compensation, which is the basic spirit of civil law. Since the damage caused by infringement of property rights can be compensated for mental damage, the mental damage caused by breach of contract should also be compensated. But first of all, we must find out under what circumstances a breach of contract will lead to the mental damage of the other party. It should be pointed out that under any circumstances, breach of contract will not cause mental damage to the other party. Only under certain circumstances will breach of contract cause mental damage to the other party. Common cases of mental damage caused by breach of contract are as follows: 1. Creditors get sick or die because of major money and debts. Under the current level of economic development in China, people's living standards are generally not high, and it is not easy for ordinary people to save a little money, especially when the amount of money and debt is large, or the money is used for special or special emergencies, the debtor deliberately fails to pay off the debt, which will indeed bring mental pain to creditors; Second, there are flaws in providing services, which leads to mental damage to creditors. For example, the name of Suzhou engineer was omitted by the computer operator of the above-mentioned air ticket. The case in which they were detained at Bangkok airport belongs to the case in which creditors suffered mental damage due to the defects in the services provided by the airport.
It should be pointed out that compensation for mental damage caused by breach of contract should not be applied to legal persons. The reason is that infringement of property rights will not cause mental damage to the legal person, but only infringement of the personality right of the legal person will cause mental damage. Since it will not cause mental damage, you should not ask for compensation.