Opinion ID: 312332
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Absence of Evidence of Damages17

Text: 167 RCA contends that the damages found by the jury to have proximately resulted from RCA's breach of contract, breach of warranty, and repudiation were not supported by evidence of monetary loss. 168 We agree that Fredonia did not prove its damages to the required reasonable certainty. 169 Of course, Fredonia's recovery of damages may not be defeated because it failed to prove its damages with exactness. Southwest Battery Corp. v. Owen, 131 Tex. 423, 115 S.W.2d 1097, 1099 (Tex.S.Ct.1938). Damages in a contract action must be based on evidence that affords a sufficient basis for estimating their amount in money with reasonable certainty. Schoenberg v. Forrest, 253 S.W.2d 331, 334 (Tex.Civ. App.1952) and authorities cited therein. While it is true that a party who breaches a contract cannot escape liability because it is impossible to state or prove a perfect measure of damages, Southwest Battery Corp. v. Owen, supra 115 S.W.2d at 1099, it is also true that a defendant in a contract action cannot be assessed with damages that are based on mere opinion and do not rise to the level of a reasonable certainty. Schoenberg v. Forrest, supra 253 S.W.2d at 336. 170 Clearly, Fredonia should have presented evidence of its damages that would have been more convincing. This is not a case of proven damages uncertain in amount, but rather damages that were not proved at all to a reasonable certainty. Jordan v. Cartwright, 347 S. W.2d 799, 801 (Tex.Civ.App.1961). Cf. Household Goods Carriers' Bureau v. Terrell, 5 Cir., 1969, 417 F.2d 47, 53. 171 RCA claims further that it was improper for the jury to base its award of damages on the opinion of Fredonia's expert witness, Norman Fischer, as to the value of the enterprise at various points in time. 172 In Texas, as contrasted to other jurisdictions, witnesses are allowed to give their opinion as to the value of property before and after it is injured. Southwestern Bell Telephone Company v. Willie, 329 S.W.2d 466, 467 (Tex.Civ. App.1959) and Houston & T.C.R. Co. v. Ellis, 111 Tex. 15, 224 S.W. 471 (1920). The distinction is not with the method Fredonia used in proving damages but rather with the method's inexactness in the present case.