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Mindy Chen-Wishart. Contract Law (2018 6 edn). p 495.

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If a judge awards claimant nominal damages, this means the defendant lost and must pay costs. Thus I'd guess 'attach' to mean 'impose' or 'award'? But the dictionary's definition doesn't fit.

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If a judge awards claimant nominal damages, this means the defendant lost and must pay costs. Thus I'd guess 'attach' to mean 'impose' or 'award'? But the dictionary's definition doesn't fit.

In this context attach means precisely what you are guessing that it means, the winner gets nominal damages and the costs to which they are entitled to as a prevailing party.

The terms "impose" or "award" would be more conventional and less confusing, but in this particular context, this is what is meant.

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  • If you Google the court case mentioned in the article, court costs were not ordered to be paid, so this is not what is meant.
    – Putvi
    May 10, 2019 at 18:14
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    @Putvi whether or not court costs were ordered to be paid has no bearing on whether this answer is correct. Nominal damages are small amounts ordered to be paid as a symbol of recognition that the claimant was legally wronged in instances where, despite that fact, there was no significant compensable loss. This answer stands.
    – A.fm.
    May 10, 2019 at 20:07
  • @A.fm. yes I agree that its small amounts to be paid, but my answer was downvoted.
    – Putvi
    May 11, 2019 at 18:01
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Attach

to take by legal authority especially under a writ

Winning the case entitles you to damages and costs since usually “costs follow the event”. There are exceptions to the usual rule but they are not worth exploring here.

In cases where the winner has suffered no quantifiable damage, the court will award nominal or notional damages of 1 or 5 of the local currency so that there are damages to which costs can attach.

Depending on the case the costs can be much larger than the damages - into the tens of millions if the case is long enough and goes through all levels of appeal.

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By attach costs, they mean place a fee on it. There's different terms depending on where you are, but normally if you are held in contempt of court and the court wants you yourself held it is called a body attachment, which means law enforcement brings you to the court. A property attachment would mean they can take your property.

Here it is saying that if you breach a contract and no loss of money occurs, you may still be fined a small amount for breaching the contract, rather than a large fine to account for a loss of money you created.

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  • This is not what "attach costs" means. Nominal damages would ordinarily be one pound in a British court. Costs are not a fine, they are compensation for amounts expended in connection with the litigation (I don't know exactly what amount are included in costs in the U.K. but at a minimum it would include filing fees, service of process fees, and expert witness fees; I think that in the U.K. it also includes attorneys' fees.) An arbitrary fine is never awarded for a breach of contract.
    – ohwilleke
    May 10, 2019 at 18:07
  • You think 5 pounds covers that?
    – Putvi
    May 10, 2019 at 18:08

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