Defendant shipper challenged a judgment from the Superior Court of Fresno County - timscotty/timscotty GitHub Wiki

Procedural Posture Defendant shipper challenged a judgment from the Superior Court of Fresno County (California) that was granted in favor of plaintiff, a shipping company. The company prevailed in its breach of contract action claiming damages arising from the shipper's failure to provide an agreed amount of cotton for transport overseas in a vessel.

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The company chartered the vessel to carry cotton after having obtained a contract from the shipper to transport a specified quantity of bales of cotton. The shipper canceled part of its commitment for space on the vessel. The company's action claimed the difference between the net amount that it would have received from the shipper's bales that were not shipped and the net amount it received from substitute cargo. The trial court used the correct measure of damage and the company did not recover more than it would have gained if the shipper had fully performed the contract. The court found that the shipper understood that it contracted only for the space that was required for cotton. The breach of the contract affected only the space which would have been occupied by the unshipped bales. The court ruled that the proper measure of damage was the difference in the net return from that space under the contract, as adjusted in accordance with savings and extra expense. The evidence of the amount of cargo that could be carried in the space that was required for the cancelled bales of cotton, if they had been shipped, was sufficiently definite to sustain the trial court's findings.

Outcome The court affirmed the trial court's judgment.