Terry v. Parsons

Citations

• 30 Del. 90
• 102 A. 985
• 7 Boyce 90
• 1918 Del. LEXIS 18

Syllabus

<p>1. Sales—Breach of Contract—Action for Damages—Burden of Proof.</p> <p>Plaintiff in an action for damages for a breach of a contract to furnish peach carriers had the burden of showing by a preponderance of the evidence the existence of the alleged contract, the defendant’s breach, and his own damage thereby.</p> <p>2. Contracts—Definition.</p> <p>A contract is an agreement for a valuable consideration to do or not to do a particular thing, which may be express or implied, and an express contract may be oral or written.</p> <p>3. Sales—Requests—Meeting of Minds—“Contract.”</p> <p>A promise on the part of defendant to sell and deliver a certain number of peach carriers at a certain time at a fixed price, and a promise on the part of plaintiff to accept and pay for them, would constitute a contract binding between the parties, whether the agreement was oral or written.</p> <p>4. Sales—Action for Breach—Verdict.</p> <p>In an action for damages for breach of a contract to sell and deliver peach carriers, the jury, if finding that there was no contract, should return a verdict for defendant, as if there was no contract there could be no breach.</p> <p>5. Sai.es—Breach of Contract—Damages.</p> <p>On the breach of a contract to sell and deliver a certain number of peach carriers in a given time at a fixed price, the plaintiff might recover the loss shown to have been sustained by the breach, measured by any decrease in the price of the peaches because of their being overripe or because they had to be shipped in second-hand carriers or baskets, the value of those wholly lost and any extra expenses to plaintiff for labor and teams caused by the delay in picking, packing, or hauling.</p>