coffee addict-
“what about dina dimalchusa“
As far as the legal monetary obligation potentially being higher than the halachik one? A while back, “Joseph” said that in such cases, with two Jews, halacha takes precedence. I asked Rav Belsky if that was true, and (IIRC) he didn’t answer yes or no, but said the two parties should work it out, which sounds like a “yes” to me. If one of the parties isn’t Jewish, I have no idea what the halachik obligation would be – i.e. if it would be the dina d’malchusa civil obligation or not.