Native Alaskan Reclamation & Pest Control, Inc. v. United Bank Alaska

685 P.2d 1211 (1984)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Native Alaskan (P) developed a plan to buy old S-2 Tracker airplanes from the Japanese Navy and refit them to fight forest fires. United Bank of Alaska (D) was contacted and told of the plan and D agreed to finance the acquisition of the planes. Problems developed with Japanese customs and the cannibalization of the planes and D lost patience and refused to honor its letter of commitment. D also requested that any advances be paid as soon as possible and that P should transfer its business to another bank. P tried to get more financing but all attempts fell through, and the planes were forfeited to the United States who retained $20,000.16 as liquidated damages. P then attempted to put another deal together to get the planes but suffered another $20,518.60 in liquidated damages. P then filed against D for a breach of contract. The trial court found that D breached its loan agreement and eventually that P could only recover its mitigation damages but not is reliance or expectation damages and that D was not entitled to a deficiency judgment. Both parties appealed. Note: The following issues were discussed on appeal: the trial court did not err on the breach of contract finding, the finding that P could have successfully converted the planes to use had D honored the agreement, and that P was reasonable in his attempts to mitigate.