Lake Erie Boat Sales, Inc. v. Johnson

James Johnson (defendant) agreed to buy a roughly $15,000 boat from Lake Erie Boat Sales (Erie) (plaintiff) but repudiated the deal days later for health reasons; Erie then resold the same boat to someone else for the same price, yet still sued Johnson for breach, arguing it was a lost-volume seller that would have sold two boats total had Johnson gone through with his purchase. The evidence on Erie's supply conflicted: an Erie salesman testified he believed Erie had an unlimited supply of that boat model, while Johnson testified the same salesman had told him Erie only had the one boat. The trial court found Erie hadn't proven it was a lost-volume seller and ruled for Johnson, and Erie appealed.