Opinion ID: 1911047
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Storing the Truck

Text: Colton spent $2,375 to store the truck near Sioux Falls, a truck worth $8,000 in salvage. Here, the causal link between the breach and the damages became so attenuated the damages were no longer incident to the breach. SDCL 57A-2-715(1); White & Summers at § 10-3. This was unreasonable, unexpected and served only to drive up expenses and devalue the truck. Neither does this expense meet the requirements for consequential damages under SDCL 57A-2-715(2): (a) Any loss resulting from general or particular requirements and needs of which the seller at the time of contracting had reason to know and which could not reasonably be prevented by cover or otherwise; and (b) Injury to person or property proximately resulting from any breach of warranty. The law should not encourage waste. Even though the breach started the chain of events, Colton could not leave the truck in storage for an indefinite time until he had the finances to repair the damage caused in Wyoming. Consequential damages must be reasonably foreseeable by the breaching party at the time of contracting. John D. Calamari & Joseph M. Perillo, THE LAW OF CONTRACTS § 6-5, at 308 (3d ed. 1987); Petroleo Brasileiro, S.A. Petrobras v. Ameropan Oil Corp., 372 F.Supp. 503, 508 (E.D.N.Y.1974); 5 A. Corbin, CORBIN ON CONTRACTS § 1010, at 79 (1964). The storage fees fail to qualify as reasonably foreseeable. Once Colton retrieved his truck, his responsibility included mitigating further loss. Brown v. City of Yankton, 434 N.W.2d 376 (S.D.1989). The official comment to UCC § 2-715(2) states recovery is impermissible unless the buyer could not reasonably have prevented the loss by cover or otherwise.