Talisman Sugar Corp. v. Farmland Development Co.

• Decision Date: 25 September 1963
• Docket Number: No. 3538,3538
• Parties: TALISMAN SUGAR CORPORATION, a Florida corporation, Appellant, v. FARMLAND DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, Inc., a Florida corporation, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 392

156 So.2d 392

TALISMAN SUGAR CORPORATION, a Florida corporation, Appellant, v. FARMLAND DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, Inc., a Florida corporation, Appellee.

No. 3538.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.

Sept. 25, 1963.

R. Bruce Jones, of Jones, Adams, Paine & Foster, West Palm Bech, for appellant.

B. F. Paty, Jr., of Paty, Downey & Lewis, West Palm Beach, for appellee.

GERMANY, JOHN, Associate Judge.

This is an appeal from a Final Judgment entered on a jury verdict. Appellee, Farmland Development Company, Inc., Plaintiff below, filed a complaint against Appellant, Talisman Sugar Corporation. The parties will be referred to hereafter as they were in the lower court. The complaint alleged an oral construction contract by which Plaintiff was to excavate, clear and prepare certain lands leased by Defendant, for the planting of sugar cane, the work to be completed on or before March 1, 1962. Plaintiff further alleged that work was commenced under the contract on September 1, 1961, and that the Defendant terminated the contract without just cause by notifying the Plaintiff on September 9, 1961, to stop work effective September 11, 1961. As a result of the alleged breach, Plaintiff claimed damages consisting of anticipated profits in the sum in excess of $200,000.00. The Defendant denied the oral contract and that the Plaintiff sustained any damages. The jury returned a verdict for the Plaintiff in the sum of $75,000.00.

Defendant urges four points on appeal which can be telescoped as follows:

1. Did Plaintiff introduce sufficient evidence to justify the Court in sending the cause to the jury and as a corollary, was there evidence upon which a jury could base its verdict?

2. Was there error in the Court's refusal to allow the Defendant to introduce into evidence actual costs incurred in performing the work?

The standard of proof required for a Plaintiff in an action for anticipated profits for breach of a contract was set up in the Court's syllabus in the case of Sullivan v. McMillan, 26 Fla. 543, 8 So. 450 (1890).

'Where, pending the performance of an executory contract, there is an entire breach of it by one party, for whom the work is to be done, and the other party thereupon sues him, the measure of damages is the difference between what it would have cost to perform the contract, and the contract price, had it been entirely executed. In estimating the cost of performance, the price of labor and materials, etc., at the time of the breach will govern, without regard to subsequent fluctuations. The elements of cost should be ascertained from reliable sources, from practical men having experience in matters of the same kind, and not from loose and speculative opinions. The less time the party who is to do the work is engaged in consequence of the breach, and the consequent release from care, trouble, risk, and responsibility, and all necessary items of expense, including also those which, though contingent, are almost inseparable from the performance of the contract, as well as the value of the use of property necessarily employed in performing the contract, and all outlays of capital for labor, material, etc., should be included in the estimate of the cost.'

To meet this standard, Plaintiff introduced into evidence the testimony of its President, Richard Crocco. He testified as to the contract between the parties, its terms, breach and the damages the Plaintiff sustained. The estimate of costs to Plaintiff was broken down by acre for disking, chopping, clearing and mole draining 13,000 acres of land. Sheets of these cost estimates were introduced by Plaintiff without objection and copies were furnished to the jury during the testimony of Crocco. On cross-examination, it was brought out that the cost sheets included Pla...