Procedural History
The case had initially been heard at the trial court level; the judgement had been delivered in favour of the plaintiff/ appellee (Wendling).
Facts
Mr Philip Eugene Wendling was a farmer and a stockman. On the other hand, Ted Puls was a buyer who engaged in buying farm animals and products. Wendling had told Puls that he might be having some cattle for sale and in response, Puls told him to communicate whenever he was ready to sell the animals. Sometime after, Wendling told Puls that he had 103 cattle for sale of which Puls responded in the affirmative that he would purchase the same.
Puls proceeded to make financial association with Dr George Watson who was a veterinarian by profession and to make a deposit of $1000 as down payment. Puls later approached Wendling to request for more time before taking delivery. He cited that he was in search of a place that would house all the animals. Wendling agreed to this. However, Puls took more time than he had requested before taking delivery and Wendling got concerned. He tried to communicate with Plus but could not reach him. He also tried to communicate through Dr Watson, but the latter claimed not to know of Puls’ intentions.
Wendling then requested Puls for more down payments as he waited to take delivery, but Puls did not agree to this. He argued that Wendling should sell the cattle to someone else. Wendling could not do this without a written lease from the two. Since Puls and Watson had made no intention of presenting the written notice, Wendling went ahead to serve them with a notice before selling the cattle to another buyer at a lower price. Wendling then sued Puls and Watson for a breach of contract. Puls appealed against the trial court’s decision.
Issue
The issue was whether the trial court was right to rule in favour of the plaintiff/ appellee. The appellants raised the issue as to whether the appellee had the right to set a date upon which the appellants were to take delivery of the goods, failure to which constituted a breach. The appellants’ second issue was the fact that Wendling had already accepted the $1000 down-payment. He was, therefore, barred from seeking damages in excess of that amount.
Holding
The United States Supreme Court of Kansas found no fault or error in the decision made by the trial court. In this regard, it ruled in favour of the appellee just as the trial court had done.
Reasoning and Disposition
The court observed that the appellants had agreed on the true existence of the terms of agreement, the down-payment amount and eventually the date on which they were to take delivery of the merchandise. The court noted that good faith is required in every contract as per the Uniform Commercial Code. The appellants were in breach since they were required by this code, to do their part in good faith by delivering the merchandise at the said time.
The court also noted that it had made calculations from the time there was a breach of the contract and made comparisons to the amount that was lost by Wendling: when he sold the cattle to another party at a lower price. The court found that there was no proof of the existence of customs and usages in the cattle trade that considered any down-payments made by a party, to be liquidated damages in case of a dispute. Therefore, the down-payment was to be included as part of Wendling’s damages.
Work Cited
Wendling v. Puls and Watson 227 Kan. 780; 610 P.2d 580; 1980.