88 Iowa 524 | Iowa | 1893
The appellant claims twenty dollars, the cost of correcting defects in the dust reels. It is evident that these reels were insufficient, as originally constructed, when the mill was run near its capacity. The change in the reels was necessary, and the .reasonable cost, twenty dollars, should be allowed to the appellant.-
The appellee contends that the measure of damages is the rental value of the mill. Many authorities are cited, but, as the contention is fully answered in Brownell v. Chapman, 84 Iowa, 504, we do not here notice the other cases referred to. That was a counterclaim for damages for a failure to furnish boilers for a steamboat at the time agreed. This court, after an extended review of the cases, held that the measure of damages was the rental value of the boat. While it is true that the cost of the mill, the depreciation, or otherwise, of its machinery while in operation, and the profits that could be made with the mill, are proper to be considered in arriving at the rental value, neither constitutes the measure of damages. Here, as in Brownell’s case, “we must keep in view the rule universally recognized, that the damage for breach of contract must be limited to such as would naturally come within the contemplation of the parties at the time the contract was made.” Surely, those parties did not then contemplate that oats would be low and meal high, and, therefore, the profits large. . They must have contemplated that a failure to complete the mill in time would deprive the appellee of the use of the mill, and that the damages would be the value of that use, namely, the rental value. The court below allowed the appel
Our conclusion is that the appellant is entitled to be allowed four hundred and fifty-two dollars and fifty cents on the counterclaim, in addition to the amounts