Contracts Keyed to Ayres
Taylor v. Johnston
Facts
Plaintiff had two mares, Sunday Slippers and Sandy Fork, he wished to breed with Defendants’ stallion, Fleet Nasrullah. They formed an agreement to breed the mares with the stallion in 1966, and if either of the mares failed to produce a live mare from the 1966 breeding, then again in 1967. Late in 1965, Defendants’ sold Fleet Nasrullah and shipped him to the buyers in Kentucky. As part of the sale, various shareholders were to breed their own mares with Fleet Nasrullah. Defendants notified Plaintiff that their agreement was nullified by the sale. Plaintiff threatened litigation and Defendants agreed to maintain the agreement and allow Plaintiff’s mares to breed with Fleet Nasrullah in Kentucky. During early 1966, both mares were already pregnant and gave birth in April and June of that year. Plaintiff’s agent tried to arrange for Fleet Nasrullah to breed with Sunday Slippers three times and with Sandy Fork once. On each occasion, the appointment could not be made because Fleet Nasrullah was booked on those dates for breeding with the shareholders’ mares. Plaintiff gave up trying to breed his mares with Fleet Nasrullah and instead bred them both with Chateaugay in June 1966. Both mares became pregnant, but the pregnancies did not result in live births. Plaintiff sued Defendants for breach of contract and Defendants countersued for stud fees. The trial court found that the sale of Fleet Nasrullah and the resultant inability of Plaintiff to arrange for the stallion to breed with the two mares constituted a repudiation and breach of the contract and awarded Plaintiff more than $103,000. Defendants appealed, claiming that they had neither repudiated nor breached the contract and that Plaintiff’s breeding of the mares with Chateaugay was the breach that made Defendants’ performance impossible.
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