Legal Definitions - expectation interest

Definition:Expectation interest refers to the interest of a non-breaching party in being put in the position that they would have been in if the contract had been fulfilled.

Example: If a person hires a contractor to build a house and the contractor fails to complete the work, the expectation interest of the person would be the cost of completing the house with another contractor. This is because the person would have been in that position if the original contract had been fulfilled.

This example illustrates the definition of expectation interest because it shows how the non-breaching party (the person who hired the contractor) has an interest in being put in the position they would have been in if the contract had been fulfilled (having a completed house). The cost of completing the house with another contractor represents the expectation interest of the non-breaching party.