Feld v. Henry S. Levy
& Sons, Inc.
Court
of Appeals of
37
N.Y.2d 466, 373 N.Y.S.2d 102, 335 N.E.2d 320.
Facts: The defendant and plaintiff
made a renewable one-year contract for the defendant to sell all his bread
crumbs to the plaintiff. The defendant
stopped making bread crumbs before the end of the term of the contract and the plaintiff
sued. Both sides moved for summary judgment,
but both motions were denied. Both sides
appealed to the intermediate appellate court, and the trial court’s dismissal
of the motions for summary judgment were affirmed. Finally, both parties appealed to the Court
of Appeals of
Issue: May a promise be implied on
the part of the seller to keep making bread crumbs for the entire length of the
contract?
Rule: A contract by a seller to
provide a good exclusively places an obligation on the seller to make their
best effort to supply the good.
Analysis: The court finds that there
is a promise implied in the contract for the defendant to try in good faith to keep
crumblin’. The question remains whether
the defendant stopped crumb production in good faith. The court finds that it is bad faith for the defendant
to stop crumb production just because their profits aren’t as high as they
expected, but it is good faith for the defendants to stop crumb production if
they incurred losses from such production that were “more than trivial”. The question of which is the case, the court
says, is a matter for the factfinder.
Conclusion: The dismissal of the
motions for summary judgment is upheld and the case will proceed to trial.