Court Opinion

ID: 9711011
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:22:55.693865+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:01.610898
License: Public Domain

ABRAHAMSON, J.
(concurring). I think that the figure of damages set by the trial court and affirmed by this court is reasonable in view of the record in this seven-year-old, twice-appealed-to-this-court case, and I therefore concur.
The record leaves one with the impression that the plaintiff did not exercise minimal efforts to apply to municipal authorities for another license or to secure another tenant who possessed such a license, seeking instead to secure by this lawsuit equivalent financial benefits. At the same time, the defendants failed to prove *51that had the plaintiff made these efforts there was a good probability of success in obtaining a license.
I do not believe the plaintiff’s proof of $20,000 damages is correct. The expert testimony as to diminished value was based on the assumed facts (1) that because of the defendants’ breach the property would never be used as a tavern, and (2) that but for the defendants’ breach the property would always have been so used. These assumptions are not based on fact or any reasonable probabilities and therefore are not reliable. On the basis of the total record the trial court’s determination of damages in the amount of $5,000 seems just and reasonable. I wish to make clear, however, that I do not concur in the establishment of any precedent or rule of law to the effect that the expenditure of $5,000 should be required in mitigation of damages with regard to a case such as this one involving the sums of money contemplated here. Nor do I interpret the opinion of the court as endorsing such a rule, for it would be manifestly unfair and unreasonable in the majority of cases.
I am authorized to state that Mr. Justice HEF-FERNAN joins in this concurrence.