Laraway v. Perkins
Laraway v. Perkins
Opinion of the Court
The only plea to this action of covenant which the defendant has interposed is non est factum, under which neither a mutual abandonment of the contract between the-parties nor the non-performance by the plaintiff of conditions precedent can be given in evidence. The only question contained in the bill of exceptions which we are called upon to consider, is whether the evidence as to the damages in this case was correctly admitted at the trial. This evidence was objected to on two grounds: First, that the difference in value of the house and lotto be conveyed to the defendant by the plaintiff and the house to be built by the defendant for the plaintiff was not the true measure of ithe damages sustained by the plaintiff by the defendant’s
A new trial must be denied and the judgment affirmed.
The damages assessed by the jury, under the ruling of the judge, were “ the fair legal and natural result of the breach of the defendant's agreement.” The defendant had contracted to build a house for the plaintiff and receive his pay in land. He failed altogether to perform his agreement. The difference in value between the house and the land was the natural and necessary measure of damages. If the plaintiff, by the contract, had obliged himself to pay $1000 in money, for a building which, when completed, would have been valued at $1750, he would have lost, by the non-performance of the contract by the defendant, $750. There would be nothing remote, contingent or speculative in such a rule of damages. He would have been compelled to pay the sum last mentioned, over and above the price stipulated for the subject of the
The damages in this case resulting necessarily from the breach of the contract upon the part of the defendant, it was not necessary that they should be specially stated in the declaration. (1 Chit. Pl., 348, 7th ed.; 5 Wend., 538; 3 Esp., 83; 1 Taunt., 566.)
As this was the only point argued, the other questions presented by the bill of exceptions being abandoned, the judgment of the supreme court must be affirmed.
All the judges concurred.
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Laraway against Perkins
- Status
- Published