Court partially allowed claim by reducing excessive contractual penalty to half under Civil Code provisions.

The court partially dismissed the plaintiff's claim for the full contractual penalty while awarding half of the claimed amount. The defendant argued for the full penalty based on the contract terms, but the plaintiff contended the delay was caused by construction work and the penalty was disproportionately high. The court ruled that the penalty was unreasonably excessive given the short delay and lack of proven damages, applying the statutory right to mitigate the penalty by half.