Curtice Brothers Co. v. Catts


66 A. 935 (N.J. 1907).

One-Sentence Takeaway:  The court ordered specific performance of an agreement to sell acreages of tomato crops, because a large canning enterprise which had been established by plaintiff would be unable to function without the delivery of the crops.

Summary:  The case involved breach of a contract whereby Defendant agreed to sell the entire tomato crop of a certain piece of land to tomato canning company run by Plaintiff.

Plaintiff presented evidence that its factory had a capacity of one million cans of tomatoes and the tomato packing season lasted six weeks.  In reliance on the contract, Plaintiff had scheduled the tomato canning operations to be conducted during the six week packing season.

After Defendant refused to sell the tomato crop, Plaintiff sought specific performance arguing that refusal to deliver would result in irreparable damage to Plaintiff.

The court compelled Defendant to specifically perform per the agreement, because a large canning enterprise which had been established by Plaintiff would be unable to function without the delivery of the crops and it was reasonably anticipated by the contracting parties that such would be the result at the time they entered into the contract.  The court stated that: ‘The aspect of the situation [before the court] bears no resemblance to that of an ordinary contract for the sale of merchandise in the course of an ordinary business.’

Related entries