Opinion ID: 877999
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: damages recoverable for breach of contract

Text: The District Court concluded, after finding that the contract to lend money existed, that the bank had breached its contract, and resultantly had taken over the property of Stensvad wrongfully. The damages awarded by the District Court are attacked from all directions by the bank. We have already indicated that the lost profits awarded by the bank are improper in this case. We turn now to examine the other elements of damages awarded by the court in favor of Stensvad. There can be little argument that the amount of $354,111.00 for the conversion of personal property awarded by the court is proper. It is substantially supported in the evidence and was the subject of a stipulation between the parties. The item for conversion of cattle, $382,000.00, includes a profit of $104,897.73 made by the bank in the difference between what the bank would have received had the cattle been sold in November 1971, and the amount actually received at the later time of sale. The District Court, by awarding the full amount received by the bank from the sale of the cattle, $382,000.00, gave Stensvad the benefit of the profit made by the bank in making the sale as it did. The item of $80,000.00 for mishandling of business, however, must be examined by us, and amended downward. The District Court awarded Stensvad the sum of $80,000.00, for the losses sustained by the plaintiffs during the process of the Bank's wrongful foreclosure, for loss of downpayments on cattle, for loss of livestock through death, and for losses sustained through the disruption in shipment of the cattle. The evidence sustains $58,000.00 of that award. Larry Stensvad testified that at the time of the take-over by the bank, his operations had paid out $58,000.00 on agreements for the purchase of cattle, and that these sums were forfeited to the prospective sellers when Stensvad was unable to complete the contracts of purchase. Such an item of damages is within the contemplation of section 27-1-311, MCA, with respect to the measure of damages for the breach of contract, because they were proximately caused by the take-over, and in the ordinary course of things would be likely to result therefrom. The remaining part of the $80,000.00 award, that is the sum of $22,000.00, is apparently based on this portion of the record: Q. Mr. Stensvad, I would like to direct your attention to the situation involving the cattle that were moved from the lot in Roundup to the lot at Melstone by the bank after the bank took control of these cattle. Did you have occasion to review the closeout figures produced by the bank, with regard to these cattle? A. The bank didn't produce the closeout figures on them. I produced the closeout figures on them. Q. How did you obtain this information? A. Well, I had the information on what the cattle weighed when they went in down there, and then when the cattle were shipped, in terms of weight and numbers. And when the cattle were shipped out of the Melstone yards in the spring of 1972, I was there and obtained copies of the weights when the cattle went out, and numbers, so that I could compare the weights going out with the weights going in, as well as numbers. And then I also  the bank used forms that we were using at the time, before they took over, to keep track of daily feed fed out to the cattle, while they had it. And I had the opportunity to have those records to prepare feed consumption and cost data on the cattle while they had them in there. Then I returned these documents to the yards down there, when I completed my calculations. Q. From these documents that you had at this point in time, did you prepare a calculation as to the amount of money that was lost by reason of the manner and means in which the cattle were cared for and fed. A. Yes, I did. Q. And what was that amount? A. The amount was a few dollars over $22,000.00. Missing from the foregoing testimony is any basis upon which it could be determined that the bank overspent for feed, or underfed the cattle, or that the amounts spent by the bank in caring for the cattle until they were sold were unreasonable. Damages which are not clearly ascertainable in both their nature and origin cannot be recovered for a breach of contract. Section 27-1-311, MCA. We next consider the award of $814,936.00 for the loss of Stensvad's feedlots and elevators. The District Court in its findings based this award upon the original cost of construction and acquisition. Among the various values of the feedlot and elevators appearing in the evidence, the award is top dollar. On the books of three of the Stensvad corporations (L.D. Stensvad Cattle Co. had no fixed assets) the feedlots and elevators were carried at a depreciated value of $430,944.81 in total. At the request of Larry Stensvad, in April 1972, Hall and Hall, appraisers from Billings, appraised the fair market value of the Melstone feedlot, the Roundup feedlot, the Roundup mill and rolling stock, and found a total market value of $488,000.00. At the time of the sheriff's sale on foreclosure, the bank bid in for the feedlot and elevators the sum of $200,000.00, and was the successful bidder. Later the bank contracted to sell the feedlots and elevators to Roundup Feeders, Inc., a corporation formed by the owners of the bank, for $350,000.00. Roundup Feeders, Inc. in turn leased the properties to a corporation named Faunco, Inc., for cattle feeding operations under the management of Larry Stensvad, which resulted in a payment of $176,731.00 lease payments either to Roundup Feeders, Inc. or the bank, the record is not clear. On March 27, 1979, the bank offered to stipulate that as of June 30, 1971, the value of the fixed assets of the Stensvad corporations was $696,968.00. In Bos v. Dolajak (1975), 167 Mont. 1, 6, 534 P.2d 1258, 1260, we quoted with approval from Spackman v. Ralph M. Parsons Company (1966), 147 Mont. 500, 506, 414 P.2d 918, 921, though it related to personal property, the following quotation: As for the issue of compensatory damages, the question is always a difficult one. In tort actions, the wrongdoer is liable, in general, for any injury which is the natural and probable consequence of the wrong. These may include both the direct and indirect, but reasonably probable, results of the wrong. Where damage to the property is concerned, the purpose of awarding damages is to return the party injured to the same, or as nearly possible the same, condition as he enjoyed before the injury to his property. The injured party is to be made as nearly whole as possible  but not to realize a profit. Compensatory damages are designed to compensate the injured party for actual loss or injury  no more, no less. In Bos, supra, we approved a measure of damages based on replacement cost of a silo, in an action for breach of contract to erect a silo, but in that case it appeared that the replacement item was a secondhand silo and its cost was well within the actual market value of the silo that was destroyed. The fairest value of the feedlots and elevators in this case, found by a professional and untinged by any personal bias of the parties, is the fair market value found by Hall & Hall, the sum of $488,000.00. We find the District Court should have used that figure in a determination of the proper amount to be awarded to plaintiff for his ouster from the feedlots and elevators. It should be noted however, that Hall & Hall's appraisal included Stensvad's rolling stock. The value of the rolling stock is already included in the personal property award of $354,111.00. The auction receipts from the sale of the rolling stock which were included in that amount were $66,064.70. We should in fairness deduct the value of the rolling stock from Hall & Hall's appraisal of the feedlots and elevators, which leaves a net figure rounded market value of $411,935.00 as the proper value of the feedlots and elevators. Accordingly, we amend the District Court's award of damages to Stensvad as follows: 1. Conversion of personal property $354,111.00 2. Conversion of cattle 382,000.00 3. Value of feedlot and elevators 411,935.00 4. Mishandling of business 58,000.00 5. Lost profits 0 _____________ TOTAL $1,206,046.00