Fertico Belgium S. A. v. Phosphate Chemicals Export Ass'n

510 N.E.2d 334, 70 N.Y.2d 76, 517 N.Y.S.2d 465, 3 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 1812, 1987 N.Y. LEXIS 16794
CourtNew York Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 9, 1987
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 510 N.E.2d 334 (Fertico Belgium S. A. v. Phosphate Chemicals Export Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fertico Belgium S. A. v. Phosphate Chemicals Export Ass'n, 510 N.E.2d 334, 70 N.Y.2d 76, 517 N.Y.S.2d 465, 3 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 1812, 1987 N.Y. LEXIS 16794 (N.Y. 1987).

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT

Bellacosa, J.

A seller (Phoschem) breached its contract to timely deliver goods to a buyer-trader (Fertico) who properly sought cover (under the Uniform Commercial Code that means acquiring substitute goods) from another source (Unifert) in order to avoid breaching that buyer-trader’s obligation to a third-party buyer (Altawreed). The sole issue involves the applicable principles and computation of damages for breach of the Phoschem-to-Fertico contract.

We hold that under the exceptional circumstances of this case plaintiff Fertico, as a buyer-trader, is entitled to damages from seller Phoschem equal to the increased cost of cover plus consequential and incidental damages minus expenses saved (UCC 2-712 [2]). In this case, expenses saved as a result of the breach are limited to costs or expenditures which would have arisen had there been no breach. Thus, the seller Phoschem is not entitled to a credit from the profits of a subsequent sale by the first buyer-trader Fertico to a fourth party (Janssens) of nonconforming goods from Phoschem. Fertico’s letter of credit had been presented by Phoschem and honored so, under the specific facts of this case, Fertico had no commercially reasonable alternative but to retain and resell the fertilizer. This is [80]*80so despite Fertico’s exercise of cover in connection with the first set of transactions, i.e., Phoschem to Fertico to Altawreed. The covering buyer-trader may not, however, as in this case, recover other consequential damages when the third party to which it made its sale provides increased compensation to offset additional costs arising as a consequence of the breach.

In October 1978 appellant Fertico Belgium S. A. (Fertico), an international trader of fertilizer, contracted with Phosphate Chemicals Export Association, Inc. (Phoschem), a corporation engaged in exporting phosphate fertilizer, to purchase two separate shipments of fertilizer for delivery to Antwerp, Belgium. The first shipment was to be 15,000 tons delivered no later than November 20, 1978 and the second was to be 20,000 tons delivered by November 30, 1978. Phoschem knew that Fertico required delivery on the specified dates so that the fertilizer could be bagged and shipped in satisfaction of a secondary contract Fertico had with Altawreed, Iraq’s agricultural ministry. Fertico secured a letter of credit in a timely manner with respect to the first shipment. After Phoschem projected a first shipment delivery date of December 4, 1978, Fertico advised Phoschem, on November 13, 1978, that the breach as to the first shipment presented "huge problems” and canceled the second shipment which had not as of that date been loaded, thus ensuring its late delivery. The first shipment did not actually arrive in Antwerp until December 17 and was not off-loaded until December 21, 1978. Despite the breach as to the first shipment, Fertico retained custody and indeed acquired title over that first shipment because, as its president testified "[w]e had no other choice” (Rec on app, at 597-598) as defendant seller Phoschem had presented Fertico’s $1.7 million letter of credit as of November 17, 1978, and the same had been honored by the issuer (see, UCC 5-114).

Fertico’s predicament from the breach by delay of even the first shipment, a breach which Phoschem does not deny, was that it, in turn, would breach its contract to sell to Altawreed unless it acquired substitute goods. In an effort to avoid that secondary breach, Fertico took steps in mid-November to cover (UCC 2-712) the goods by purchasing 35,000 tons of the same type fertilizer from Unifert, a Lebanese concern. The cost of the fertilizer itself under the Phoschem-to-Fertico contract was $4,025,000, and under the Unifert-to-Fertico contract $4,725,000, a differential of $700,000. On the same day Fertico acquired cover, November 15, 1978, Fertico’s president trav[81]*81eled to Baghdad, Iraq, to renegotiate its contract with Altawreed. In return for a postponed delivery date and an additional payment of $20.50 per ton, Fertico agreed to make direct inland delivery rather than delivery to the seaport of Basra. Fertico fulfilled its renegotiated Altawreed contract with the substitute fertilizer purchased as cover from Unifert.

In addition to the problems related to its Altawreed contract, Fertico was left with 15,000 tons of late-delivered fertilizer which it did not require but which it had been compelled to take because Phoschem had received payment on Fertico’s letter of credit. This aggrieved international buyer-seller was required to store the product and seek out a new purchaser. Fertico sold the 15,000 tons of the belatedly delivered Phoschem fertilizer to another buyer, Janssens, on March 19, 1979, some three months after the nonconforming delivery, and earned a profit of $454,000 based on the cost to it from Phoschem and its sale price to Janssens.

In 1981 Fertico commenced this action against Phoschem seeking $1.25 million in damages for Phoschem’s breach of the October 1978 agreement. A jury returned a verdict of $1.07 million which the trial court refused to overturn on a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict. The Appellate Division vacated the damage award, ordered a new trial on the damages issue only and ruled, as a matter of law, (1) that the increased transportation costs on the Altawreed contract were not consequential damages; (2) that the higher purchase price paid by Altawreed to Fertico was an expense saved as a consequence of the Phoschem breach; and (3) that the Fertico damages had to be reduced by the profits from the Janssens’ sale (Fertico Belgium v Phosphate Chems. Export Assn., 120 AD2d 401). Fertico appealed to this court on a stipulation for judgment absolute. We disagree with propositions (2) and (3) in the Appellate Division ruling, and conclude that the Uniform Commercial Code and our analysis support a modification and reinstatement of $700,000 of the damage award in a final judgment resolving this litigation between the parties.

Failure by Phoschem to make delivery on the contract dates concededly constituted a breach of the contract (White and Summers, Uniform Commercial Code § 6-2, at 207 [2d ed]). The Uniform Commercial Code § 2-711 gives the nonbreaching party the alternative of either seeking the partial self-help of cover along with recovery of damages (UCC 2-712), or of recovering damages only for the differential between the [82]*82market price and the contract price, together with incidental and consequential damages less expenses saved (UCC 2-713; see also, Productora e Importadora de Papel, S.A. de C.V. v Fleming, 376 Mass 826, 383 NE2d 1129). Fertico exercised its right as the wronged buyer-trader to cover in order to obtain the substitute fertilizer it required to meet its obligation ünder its Altawreed contract (see, UCC 2-712, comment 1).

A covering buyer’s damages are equal to the difference between the presumably higher cost of cover and the contract price, plus incidental or consequential damages suffered on account of the breach, less expenses saved (UCC 2-712 [2]). Fertico is thus entitled to a damage remedy under this section because its cover purchase was made in good faith, without unreasonable delay, and the Unifert fertilizer was a reasonable substitute for the Phoschem fertilizer (UCC 2-172 [1]; Reynolds Sec. v Underwriters Bank & Trust Co., 44 NY2d 568, 572-573).

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510 N.E.2d 334, 70 N.Y.2d 76, 517 N.Y.S.2d 465, 3 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. 2d (West) 1812, 1987 N.Y. LEXIS 16794, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fertico-belgium-s-a-v-phosphate-chemicals-export-assn-ny-1987.