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Tag Archives: Breach

Civil Practice – Res Judicata – Breach of Contract – Bad Faith – Unfair Trade Practices – Interlocutory Appeal – Insurance

Bruns v. North Carolina Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Co. (Lawyers Weekly No. 14-16-0680, 10 pp.) (Sanford Steelman Jr., J.) Appealed from Craven County Superior Court (Jay Hockenbury, J.) N.C. App. Unpub. Holding: Since defendant, Farm Bureau, was dismissed from the ...

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Contract – Breach – Evidence – Assault — Remodeling Work – Failure to Pay – Punch List

Allen Design Associates, Inc. v. Combs The defendant-homeowner failed to try to introduce evidence that the reason she refused to let the plaintiff-contractor back into her home was that she had learned that he had been arrested for assault on a female. Even if she had preserved this issue for appeal, the homeowner failed to show that such evidence was relevant; she didn’t show that she learned of the arrest before she decided not to let the contractor return.

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Contract – Breach – Damages – Interior Design – Change Orders

Diane K. Troum, Inc. v. Amini Innovation Corp. The parties’ original showroom design contract required defendant to pay plaintiff $20,000 plus purchases, administrative costs and “hours in excess of ten [to be] billed at $15.00 or $20.00 per hour for a cap of $1,000.00. Variance in rate depends on skill level of personnel.” After defendant requested additional design services, the contract’s base cost was raised to $25,000. Where plaintiff billed defendant $25,000 as its design fee plus $6,302.50 for additional labor, and where defendant paid plaintiff only $20,000, a jury could find an express contract and award plaintiff $11,302.50. Defendant has failed to show that the jury award included recovery in quantum meruit.

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Contract – Breach – Remedies – Injunction

Crosland Ardrey Woods, LLC v. Beazer Homes Corp. Where our Court of Appeals held, Where a contract did not expressly limit remedies available to an aggrieved party upon breach of the contract, the trial court did not err in granting injunctive relief. Prospective damages were unascertainable, and the contract expressly allowed for retention of an earnest money deposit by the aggrieved party, discretionary review was improvidently allowed.

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Contract – Breach – Road Construction – Stone Thickness – Damages

J.T. Russell & Sons, Inc. v. Silver Birch Pond L.L.C. Even using the measure proposed by the plaintiff-contractor - average stone depth - the defendant-developer showed that the contractor failed to abide by the contract requirement that the road be built with a stone depth of eight inches. However, the sum of all of the developer’s evidence of damages is less than the jury’s damages award; therefore, the contractor is entitled to a new trial on damages.

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