What It Does
A cumulative remedies clause keeps your options open. Without it, a court might read a contract that specifies one remedy as making that remedy exclusive, leaving you stuck with it. The clause says the opposite: the listed remedies are in addition to each other and to everything the law and equity already give you, so you can claim damages and seek an injunction, or pursue termination and a damages claim together. For in-house counsel, it is protective boilerplate you generally want, with one wrinkle. A practical test: if your contract caps a vendor's failure at a service credit as the "sole and exclusive remedy" but also says "all remedies are cumulative," the two conflict, and unless the cumulative clause expressly defers to the specific exclusive-remedy provision, you have handed a court the job of reconciling them.
States that contract remedies are cumulative and non-exclusive
Preserves remedies available at law and in equity, including injunctions
Overrides any implication that a named remedy is the only one
Must be reconciled with any sole-and-exclusive-remedy provision
Pairs naturally with a non-waiver clause and a limitation of liability
The well-drafted version carves out the places where the parties did agree a remedy is exclusive, so the general clause does not silently undo a negotiated cap.
When You'll See It
Cumulative remedies appears in nearly every commercial agreement, as well as in credit, security, and pledge agreements, where it preserves a lender's full slate of remedies. It lives in the general provisions, near the no-waiver, governing law, and remedies sections. In commercial deals it interacts with service-level credits, indemnification, and liquidated-damages provisions; in financing it interacts with the lender's enforcement rights.
It matters most where the contract elsewhere limits remedies, through a sole-and-exclusive-remedy clause, a liquidated-damages provision, or a liability cap, because that is where a boilerplate "remedies are cumulative" line can quietly conflict with a term the parties negotiated hard. The more carefully you capped a remedy somewhere, the more you want the cumulative clause to defer to that cap.
Examples
Everspin Technologies, Inc.
Commercial Agreement
Cumulative and non-exclusive, with a carve-out for contrary terms
Mutual
2024
"Rights and Remedies Cumulative. Except to the extent expressly set forth to the contrary herein, the rights and remedies provided in this Agreement shall be cumulative and not exclusive of any other rights and remedies provided by law or otherwise."
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions, Inc.
Voting Agreement
Injunctive remedies cumulative and in addition to law and equity
One-Sided
2025
"These injunctive remedies are cumulative and in addition to any other rights and remedies Parent may have at law or in equity."
BancPlus Corporation
Pledge Agreement
Cumulative remedies with no waiver by delay
One-Sided
2025
"...no failure or delay... preclude any other or further exercise thereof or the exercise of any other right, power or remedy. All remedies are cumulative and are not exclusive of any other remedies provided by law."
Negotiate
You're likely to enforce
Include a clear cumulative-and-non-exclusive clause that adds the contract remedies to those available at law and in equity.
Expressly preserve injunctive relief and specific performance, so you are not limited to damages for a breach that money cannot fix.
Pair it with a non-waiver clause, so a failure or delay in exercising one remedy does not waive it or the others.
You want certainty
Make the cumulative-remedies clause expressly defer to any provision stating a remedy is sole and exclusive, using language like "except as expressly set forth to the contrary."
Confirm the clause does not override the limitation of liability, so your negotiated caps survive.
Check the interplay with liquidated damages and service-level credits, so a general cumulative line does not reopen a remedy you closed.
This is rarely a headline fight, but it is where a boilerplate line can quietly unwind a negotiated cap, so reconcile it with your exclusive-remedy and liability provisions.
Red Flags
A general cumulative-remedies clause that conflicts with a sole-and-exclusive-remedy provision elsewhere, with no language reconciling them.
Cumulative-remedies language broad enough to be read as overriding the limitation of liability cap.
No preservation of equitable relief, leaving a party limited to damages.
A cumulative clause with no accompanying non-waiver clause, leaving open a waiver-by-conduct argument.
One-sided cumulative remedies that preserve every option for the stronger party while limiting yours.
FAQs
This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
