Neumiller, Farms, Inc. v. Cornett

368 So.2d 272 (1979)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P agreed to deliver twelve loads of chipping potatoes to D during July and August 1976, and D agreed to pay $4.25 per hundredweight. The contract required that the potatoes be United States Grade No. 1 and 'chipt [sic] to buyer satisfaction.' A load of potatoes contains 430 hundredweight and is valued at $1,827.50. D accepted three of these loads without objection. At that time, the market price of chipping potatoes was $4.25 per hundredweight. Shortly thereafter, the market price declined to $2.00 per hundredweight. P tendered additional loads of potatoes, but D refused acceptance, saying the potatoes would not 'chip' satisfactorily. An expert tested and reported that the potatoes were suitable in all respects. D agreed to 'try one more load.' P then tendered a load of potatoes which had been purchased from another grower, Roy Hartline. D's agent had recently purchased potatoes from Hartline at $2.00 per hundredweight but claimed dissatisfaction with potatoes from the same fields when tendered by P at $4.25 per hundredweight. At the time of D's final refusal, P had between seventeen and twenty-one loads of potatoes unharvested in their fields. Four loads were sold in Chattanooga, Tennessee; Atlanta, Georgia; and local markets in DeKalb County. Efforts to sell their potato crop to other buyers were hampered by poor market conditions. The jury returned a verdict of $17,500 for P based on a breach of contract. D appealed.