Cherwell-Ralli, Inc. v. Rytman Grain Co.
Supreme Court of Connecticut
433 A.2d 984 (Conn. 1980)
Rytman Grain Co. (defendant) had an installment contract to buy meal from Cherwell-Ralli, Inc. (CRI) (plaintiff) but was chronically late paying. After CRI's president personally assured Rytman that deliveries would continue, Rytman wrote a check for its overdue balance, but stopped payment on it just eight days later based only on an unsubstantiated third-party rumor that CRI would stop delivering. CRI then halted further deliveries and sued for the money owed; Rytman counterclaimed for CRI's failure to deliver the rest of the meal. The trial court found Rytman's stop-payment breached the entire contract and ruled for CRI, and Rytman appealed.
Whether an aggrieved seller may, upon the buyer's egregious conduct constituting a breach of an installment contract as a whole, cancel the remainder of the contract as to the entire undelivered balance without first using the UCC's insecurity procedures under § 2-609.