Court Opinion

ID: 9463920
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:20:25.267286+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:21.699558
License: Public Domain

VAN GRAAFEILAND, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
Although I concur with much that has been said in Judge Meskill’s carefully researched opinion, there are several points on which I find myself in disagreement with my colleagues. The first of these concerns the contractual requirement for notice of breach, and the second involves the majority’s remand for further consideration of an evidentiary ruling. I will address each of these briefly.

Notice of Breach

When a businessman retains a lawyer to prepare a contract, he expects, and is entitled to expect, that the lawyer will incorporate such provisions therein as are necessary to protect his client’s interests. Nothing is more frustrating to the conscientious lawyer than to painstakingly draft such provisions and then have a court brush them aside as “hypertechnical”.
*929The attorneys for appellant very carefully provided that no failure to perform should be termed a material breach unless appellee should first deliver to appellant “a written notice specifying the ... alleged failure to act constituting such claimed material breach and [appellant] shall have failed to cure the material breach within thirty (30) days after receipt by [appellant] of such written notice.” Where such a clause exists, it is settled law that there can be no recovery unless the notice provided for has been given. Plumley v. United States, 226 U.S. 545, 548, 33 S.Ct. 139, 57 L.Ed. 342 (1913); National Telefilm Associates, Inc. v. Pamandia Productions, Inc., 42 A.D.2d 514, 344 N.Y.S.2d 418 (1st Dep’t 1973); 10 N.Y. Jurisprudence Contracts § 293 (1960); 17A C.J.S. Contracts § 515, at 852-53 (1963). This rule of law assumes particular importance where, as here, a contract has been assigned and the assignor’s obligations assumed, because the notice which it requires guarantees the assignor an opportunity to remedy a defect in performance about which the assignor might not otherwise know.
The notice relied on in this case consisted of a telegram followed closely by a letter. The telegram stated in substance that the sale to ABC constituted a breach of contract and that suit would be filed against ABC immediately. The District Court has held that the sale did not constitute a breach of contract, and my colleagues do not quarrel with this holding. The inventory of records was, of course, included in the sale, and plaintiff’s statement that this transfer constituted an illegal seizure did not make it so. The letter stated that defendant had breached the contract in that it attempted to make a contract with ABC “creating an obligation or responsibility in behalf of or in the name of the Contemporary Mission.” Defendant had done no such thing. It is clear, therefore, that neither the letter nor the telegram pointed to any breach of contract which the defendant was given a thirty-day opportunity to cure.
The majority opinion states that the letter and telegram placed defendant under a duty to communicate with ABC to “insure that the contract was being performed”; and, that “[h]ad it done so, it would have found” that it was not. This, however, was the very procedure that the thirty-day notice of default was designed to eliminate.1 Without going into unpleasant details, the record shows that plaintiff’s members were not naive recluses venturing timidly into the commercial world, but were aggressive entrepreneurs who were strangers to neither contract negotiations nor litigation. I see no reason why they should not be bound by the specific provisions of their contract in the same manner as would any other businessmen.

Evidentiary Remand

Under the Federal Rules of Evidence, the trial judge continues to have wide discretion in his rulings, which will not be disturbed unless this discretion has been clearly abused. United States v. Dwyer, 539 F.2d 924, 927 (2d Cir. 1976). “Hardly anywhere does the inherent nature of an adversary trial commit so much to the careful, but wide and flexible, discretion of the trial judge as it does on questions of admissibility of evidence.” 11 Wright & Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 2885, at 282 (1973).
Judge Owen gave thorough consideration to the plaintiff’s exhibit which purported to show the sales history of some 324 records that were number 61 or better on the record chart during 1974. Indeed, he permitted plaintiff to put its vice president on the stand in the absence of the jury to attempt to lay a proper foundation for the exhibit’s admission and exercised remarkable re*930straint during this procedure, in the face of conduct by the witness which bordered on the contemptuous. The testimony of the witness showed that the sales history of each record was dependent upon the reputation of the performing artist, the size and resources of the recording company, the quality of the music and recording and the speed with which the record rose on the record chart. The exhibit which plaintiff offered in evidence did not contain information as to any of these items. I see no abuse of discretion in the trial court’s rejection of it.
Evidence which may be arguably relevant should not be admitted if it tends, as here, to mislead rather than enlighten the jury. United States v. Costello, 221 F.2d 668, 674 (2d Cir. 1955), aff’d, 350 U.S. 359, 76 S.Ct. 406, 100 L.Ed. 397 (1956). This is particularly true where figures are summarized in documents which “have a way of acquiring an existence of their own, independent of the evidence which gave rise to them.” Holland v. United States, 348 U.S. 121, 128, 75 S.Ct. 127, 131, 99 L.Ed. 150 (1954). Evidence should also be excluded which leads to possible confusion, United States v. Harris, 542 F.2d 1283, 1317 (7th Cir. 1976), or tends to prolong the trial or distract the jury into side issues, such as excursions into the detailed history of 324 unrelated recordings. See Belmont Industries, Inc. v. Bethlehem Steel Corp., 512 F.2d 434, 439 (3d Cir. 1975). I am not sure that I understand what my colleagues are directing the District Court to do upon remand. My position simply is that there was no error in the trial court’s ruling and there is therefore no necessity for any type of remand.
I agree with the majority that the question of liability as to the Virgin contract is a “close one”, and, as a juror, I might well have reached a different conclusion than was reached below. However, I would affirm the judgment on the Virgin contract, both as to liability and amount. I would reverse so much of the judgment as awards damages under the Crunch agreement and such damages as are unallocated.

. It should also be noted that no written notice of any sort was given to the assignee. An assignee of a contract stands in the shoes of his assignor and acquires the assignor’s rights thereunder. Tambro Fabrics Corp. v. Deering Milliken, Inc., 35 A.D. 469, 471, 318 N.Y.S.2d 764 (1st Dep’t 1971); see In re S & L Vending Corp. v. 52 Thompkins Avenue Restaurant, Inc., 26 A.D.2d 935, 274 N.Y.S.2d 697 (2d Dept. 1966). The right to a thirty-day notice of default was such a contractual right.