Defendants interposed separate demurrers to the complaint, which the trial court overruled, certifying that the question thereby presented was important and doubtful, and defendants appealed.
The complaint alleges the following facts; Plaintiffs are copartners and during the times stated therein were engaged in the retail grocery trade in the village of North Mankato, the good-will whereof was of the value of $1,000; that on the second day of April, 1918, defendant Sun Insurance Office issued to plaintiffs a policy of insurance in the sum of $1,500, covering the stock of goods and the building wherein the businéss was carried on and conducted; that on the second day of November, 1918, a like insurance policy was issued to plaintiffs by the other defendant covering the same property; that on the twenty-fourth day of April, 1919, plaintiffs suffered a loss by fire and the insured property was thereby damaged to the extent of over $1,600; notice of the loss was duly given to each company, and, under instructions from their representative -and adjuster, plaintiffs closed their place of business to facilitate an examination into the nature and extent of the loss; that defendants subsequently offered to pay plaintiffs in full for the damage suffered the sum of $450, which plaintiffs refused to accept; thereafter further negotations resulted in a settlement by which defendants agreed to pay the sum of $1,100, in full discharge of their liability; this plaintiffs agreed to accept.
The complaint further alleges that notwithstanding the settlement defendants delayed and refused to pay the amount agreed upon, and
The complaint also alleges that the delay in the settlement and payment of the loss was ruinous to plaintiffs’ business and the good-will thereof; that to maintain the same and to hold their former trade an immediate resumption of the business was necessary; that they needed the insurance money to pay the demands of pressing creditors, as defendants well knew; that defendants wrongfully detained the possession of the store building after the fire an unreasonable time and until plaintiffs’ patrons had turned elsewhere and the good-will of the busi-ness had been lost.
All and singular of which, the delay in the adjustment and payment of the loss and the other acts of alleged wrongdoing, the complaint alleges were wilful and malicious and with the view on defendants’ part to inflict loss -and injury to plaintiffs, and to ruin and destroy their said grocery business,' with full knowledge that their conduct- would have that result and effect, to their damage in the sum of $2,900 for which they demand judgment.
The importance of the question presented in a measure at least is found in the unusual character of the suit, and the courage with which it stands forth in challenge of established rules of law -controlling rights and liabilities in actions involving breach of contract obligations. Though the complaint abounds in allegations and charges of malice and intentional wrongdoing on the part of defendants, the action is not one in tort, but one for the recovery of damages for a breach of the contract, and the rule of liability in actions of that kind must control the rights of the parties. Whittaker v. Collins,
The general rule of damages for the breach of contract obligations is well settled law in this state. It limits the rights of the complaining party to compensation for such loss as results naturally and proximately from the breach, or such as may reasonably be supposed to have been in the contemplation of the parties at the time the contract was entered into. 1 Dunnell, Minn. Dig. § 2559; Paine v. Sherwood,
The motives prompting the breach of a contract are immaterial, so far as the rule of damages is concerned, and, however malicious or wrongful, the measure of compensation remains the same. North v. Johnson,
The action is wholly unlike Tuttle v. Buck,
It follows that the complaint fails to state a cause of action and the demurrer should have been sustained.
Order reversed.