Rancho Pescado, Inc. v. Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.

Rancho Pescado (plaintiff) licensed a stretch of canal from Northwestern Mutual (defendant) to farm catfish using an unconventional flowing-water method after only a brief, mixed-results pilot program, projecting annual output of 8 million pounds -- more than 11% of the entire nation's 1977 catfish harvest and vastly exceeding the most successful farmer's 400,000-pound best year -- to be sold through distributor Frosty Fish, which had only ever moved about 52,000 pounds annually and had never sold canned catfish despite planning to can much of the harvest. After Northwestern terminated the license agreement over alleged interference with its downstream ranch, RP sued for breach and a jury awarded $2.5 million, which the trial court reduced via judgment notwithstanding the verdict to $101,510.