Sure-Trip, Inc. v. Westinghouse Engineering

Westinghouse Engineering (defendant) contracted to buy 1200 retrofit kits from Sure-Trip, Inc. (plaintiff) in 1988 but bought only 75. Sure-Trip sued for lost profits on the 1125 unbought units under UCC § 2-708, calculating $530 profit per kit by subtracting its historical per-kit costs from the contract price, based on the 621 units it had actually sold that year; it claimed none of its costs would rise even if production more than doubled. But Sure-Trip's 1988 tax return showed total taxable income of only $12,000. The trial court found Westinghouse breached but rejected Sure-Trip's no-cost-increase theory, awarding only about $19 per kit ($21,656 total) based on that $12,000 figure, and Sure-Trip appealed.