Opinion ID: 878358
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: hay crop damages

Text: The Franks contend that the award for damages for loss of hay crops was improper in that the court also awarded damages for loss through diminution of value for the respective tracts of the Castillos and the Cotants, and in any event, the hay crop damages were speculative. We have already referred to the statutory provision for measure of damages. Section 27-1-311, MCA. Generally the measure of damages for a breach of contract are the loss of value to the injured party of the other parties' performance caused by their failure or deficiency, plus any other incidental or consequential loss caused by the breach, less any cost or other loss that the injured party has avoided by not having to perform. Restatement (Second) Contracts, § 347 (1981); General Insurance Company v. City of Colorado Springs (Colo. 1981), 638 P.2d 752. This is sometimes described as the benefit of the bargain rule. The proper objective of an award of damages for wrongful breach of contract is to place the party wronged in as good a position as if the contract had been performed. Stensvad v. Miner's and Merchant's Bank of Roundup (1982), 196 Mont. 193, 640 P.2d 1303, cert. den. 459 U.S. 831, 103 S.Ct. 69, 74 L.Ed.2d 69. The District Court found that the plaintiffs suffered damages by reason of the breach of contract by Franks in amounts equal to the difference in the value of their respective lands with and without water for irrigation in the sum of $2,500 for the Castillos and $1,139.25 for the Cotants. In effect, these awards represent the difference in value between what the Castillos and the Cotants thought they were buying, and what they got from the Franks. Ordinarily an award for damages based on the difference in value between the promise and the performance includes in the case of land contract items such as the difference in crop values actually obtained from crop values that would have been obtained had the conveyance been as promised. This Court has recognized that in certain instances, damages for crop loss may be granted in addition to damages for the diminished value of the lands due to the unperformed promise. In Healy v. Ginoff (1923), 69 Mont. 116, 220 P. 539, this Court allowed the recovery of losses for crops until the purchasers were in possession of full knowledge of the facts. Applying that rule here, it was proper for the District Court to consider loss of hay crops for the years 1979 through 1982 as the District Court did. Franks also objected that the damages awarded for hay crop loss are speculative. They point out the conflicting opinions of the various witnesses who testified about the value of hay for the years in question, the amount of production of hay that could be expected from the lands, the cost of planting, cultivating and putting up the hay, and the actual production of the hay on the lands. We have held with respect to loss of profits that once liability is shown, that is, the certainty that the damages are caused by the breach, then loss of profits on a reasonable basis of computation and the best evidence available under the circumstances will support a reasonably close estimate of the loss of profits by a District Court. Stensvad, supra, 196 Mont. at 206, 640 P.2d at 1310. If it is reasonably certain that damages were sustained by the wrongful act or breach of the defendant, then reasonable damages rationally supported in the evidence will be upheld. Here the District Court clearly set forth the basis upon which it found the crop loss, based on the market value of hay crops and cost of production. We uphold the damages found by the District Court for crop loss.