Felder v. Reeth
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
34 F.2d 744 (1929)
Felder and others (plaintiffs) sued Reeth (defendant) for unpaid goods and cashed checks; Reeth counterclaimed, waiving any tort claim for conversion of his mining equipment and instead suing in implied contract for its reasonable value, which he put at $10,000. The plaintiffs admitted taking the equipment (to save it from a flood) and said they later sold it for $550, its reasonable market value in the region. The district court awarded Reeth damages based on the equipment's $8,000 value to him personally — reflecting what use he could have made of it — even though it had no established market value, resulting in a net judgment for Reeth. The plaintiffs appealed.
Whether a party who sues for breach of an implied contract for goods sold and delivered may recover damages measured by the detriment to himself rather than the benefit received by the party who took the goods.