Santorini Cab Corp. v. Banco Popular North America

Santorini Cab Corp. (Santorini) (plaintiff) contracted to buy two Chicago taxi medallions from Banco Popular (Banco) (defendant) for $48,000 each, but the deal collapsed after Banco struggled to give proper foreclosure notice to the medallions' owner and Chicago withheld final transfer approval; the parties kept working toward closing past the contract's 90-day deadline before Banco's attorney declared the deal "dead." The trial court found the parties had waived a limitation-of-liability clause by continuing to negotiate past the deadline, and calculated damages using the average medallion market price at the time of breach -- $66,775, or $18,775 over the contract price per medallion -- awarding Santorini $37,550 for both. Santorini appealed, arguing damages should instead reflect the much higher medallion prices at trial, roughly four years later.