Court Opinion

ID: 9532074
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 04:17:51.721861+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:40.199601
License: Public Domain

SCHAUER, J.
I concur in the judgment and generally in Justice Traynor’s opinion. In so doing, however, I deem it proper to note that I consider the resale price obtained by plaintiff as constituting some evidence of the value of the *552property to her on the date of the breach. The fact that there was a falling market on and following that date must be considered in connection with the price finally obtained in order to estimate the value as of the date of breach, but that fact also must be considered as affecting the price reasonably obtainable by a seller who first learns on the date of breach that a new purchaser must be obtained.
In other words, an appraiser in estimating, and a court in finding, the value to the seller on the date of breach must necessarily take into consideration the fact that some appreciable time is ordinarily required to find a purchaser ready, able and willing to buy. The value to the seller on the date of breach should be the price obtainable on an offering of the property on that date with allowance for a reasonable time within which to find a purchaser. Certainly the seller who does not breach his contract should not have to anticipate a breach by the contracting purchaser nor should such a seller have to stand all or any part of the loss necessarily flowing from the purchaser’s breach. Thus, if the price finally obtained in a falling market is the best price which reasonably could be procured, with due diligence, on an offering made as of the date of breach, the value to the seller as of such date would be no more than the price actually obtained.