6 Ga. App. 625 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1909
The Alkahest Lyceum System made a contract with Curry and certain other citizens of Abbeville, whereby it agreed to furnish a lyceum course of five attractions, for which Curry and the others agreed to pay $260; a stipulated amount being prescribed for each number of the course, to be paid whether the proceeds from that particular attraction were sufficient for the purpose or not. The contract is silent as to the time when the attractions should be furnished, except that the approximate dates are named, to be fixed specifically by the Alkahest Lyceum System; and no hour is prescribed for the beginning of the performances. The Alkahest Lyceum System sued for a balance claimed to be due, of $132.50; and the defendants set up by way of recoupment that one of the attractions, the Southern Trio and King, a musical concert company, arrived at Abbeville on the'day set for their appearance at night, and Curry went by the hotel and notified them to be on hand at 8 o’clock at the auditorium at the sehoolhouse, which they promised to do. They did not arrive at the auditorium, however, until after that hour, so that the performance did not begin until 9 o’clock, though it had been advertised for 8 o’clock. On this particular occasion there was an entertainment or reunion at the sehoolhouse, at which a great many people were present; and, as the school entertainment adjourned only a short time before the hour set for the beginning of the musical concert, it was very important that the performance that night should begin promptly, so that some of the people at the school entertainment would remain over and purchase tickets to the musical concert. When the troupe did arrive, the performance went on
It is possible that some of the people who were at the school entertainment would have remained over to the musical concert if it had begun promptly at 8 o’clock, although none of them had purchased tickets or signified their intention of staying over — that is, none of those for whose failure to purchase tickets the defendants are seeking to recoup damages. But nobody knows but the prospective ticket purchasers themselves what their intention was, and they did not communicate their intention to any of the witnesses or the jurors; and so it is entirely uncertain and speculative as to how many of them would have remained over, and how many tickets the defendants would have sold in addition to what were sold if the concert had started at 8 o’clock sharp. “Damages recoverable for a' breach of contract are such' as arise naturally and according to the usual course of things from such breach, and such as the parties contemplated when the contract was made, as the probable result of its breach.” Civil Code, §3799. This excludes speculative damages. We do not think that at the time these parties made this contract they contemplated that naturally and according to the usual course of things a school entertainment would be held at the school auditorium immediately preceding the time set for this performance to begin, and that unless it did begin promptly at that hour the loss of gate receipts would .be so great as to amount to half the price of the entire course of five attractions. If they had known of these special circumstances they might have provided for them in the contract. Albany Phosphate Co. v. Hugger, 4 Ga. App. 777 (62 S. E. 583). So far as appears, neither the plaintiff nor the musical-concert troupe were ever told about the school entertainment, and about the certainty of increasing the door receipts by beginning the performance at 8
Judgment reversed.