Court Opinion

ID: 9538735
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 07:40:54.32848+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:58:07.653433
License: Public Domain

PORTER, Justice
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I concur with the holding in the opinion by Justice Keeton that actionable fraud was shown in this case. I concur with the holding that the instruction given by the court as to the measure of damages was erroneous, and that the case should be remanded for new trial. I agree with the correctness of the statements of the “out-of-pocket” rule and the “benefit-of-bargain” rule used to measure damages in appropriate cases of fraud. I further agree that in Idaho we have followed the out-of-pocket rule. I do not concur with the holding that the out-of-pocket rule states the proper measure of damages in this case.
One of the two rules mentioned is generally adopted by a court as the proper measure of damages in a tort action for fraud and deceit when dealing with a contract or transaction for the sale or exchange of real or personal property, par*308ticularly where the fraud affects the value of the property. 24 Am.Jur., Fraud and Deceit, sec. 226, pp. 52-53. These rules are not exclusive and should only be used when appropriate under the facts. Selman v. Shirley, 161 Or. 582, 85 P.2d 384, 91 P.2d 312, 124 A.L.R. 1, 16. This principle was recognized in Thompson v. Walker, 56 Idaho 461, 55 P.2d 1300. In such case plaintiff sought to recover one year’s delinquent interest on the first mortgage on the property purchased which respondents had falsely represented to have been paid. A nonsuit was granted on the theory that the measure of damages was the out-of-pocket rule and there was no proof thereunder. This court held that the out-of-pocket rule was not applicable because the action did not involve the value of the property, but in effect was an alleged misrepresentation as to the price to be paid; and that the amount of damages was the unpaid interest which the purchaser was compelled to pay.
The underlying principle is that the victim of fraud is entitled to compensation for every wrong which is the natural and proximate result of the fraud. The measure of damages which should be adopted under the facts of a case is the one which will effect such result. See Selman v. Shirley, supra, for an extended and instructive discussion of this whole subject.
The hay land was rented by respondents on a crop-sharing basis. Such rental was treated hy respondents as separate and distinct from the remainder of the lease agreement, and appellants recognize in their brief that the meadow was separately rented upon a division of crop basis.
Where land is rented on a crop-sharing basis, the out-of-pocket rule, as a measure of damages for fraud, is inapplicable and inadequate. We are not in such case dealing with property sold or traded for an agreed or determinable value. An attempt to apply such rule, under such circumstances, could only result in immunity to the defendant and in no relief to the plaintiff. I am of the opinion that in a case such as the one at bar, where we are concerned with a rental on a crop-sharing basis and the plaintiff is induced .by the fraud of defendant to spend his time and effort for a season in raising, caring for and harvesting a crop, the rule for the measure of damages should be analogous to the rule for the measure of damages where a crop is continually damaged throughout its growing season, which rule has been stated as follows:
“Where a crop is injured, from time to time throughout its growing season until its maturity, but is not destroyed, so that it is cultivated throughout the season, harvested and marketed, the damage may be measured by the differr ence between the value at maturity of the probable crop if there had been no injury and the value of the actual crop at that time, less the expense of fitting for market that portion of the *309probable crop which was prevented from maturing by the injury.” 25 C.J.S., Damages, § 85, page 613.
GIVENS, C. J., and TAYLOR and THOMAS, JJ., concur in the above opinion by PORTER, J.