Tristan Colbert owns an appliance store.He has ordered 10 Subzero refrigerators for his store at a cost of $2,500 each from Plains Manufacturing.Tristan ordered the refrigerators in anticipation of an order he was going to receive from a custom-home builder.Plains Manufacturing experienced a flood at its plant in Iowa City and lost all goods in production.They wereunable to deliver the refrigerators to Tristan and notified him immediately of the problem.Tristan has to purchase the 10 refrigerators from another plant at a cost of $3,000 each.
-Suppose that instead of a flood,Plains simply did not deliver the refrigerators.Which of the following is correct?
A)Plains will need to pay the damages that Tristan experienced as a result of its failure to deliver - $500 X 10.
B)Plains can use the defense of impracticability.
C)Plains is not in breach if there is advance notification that it cannot deliver.
D)This contract need not be in writing to be enforceable.

Question

Tristan Colbert owns an appliance store.He has ordered 10 Subzero refrigerators for his store at a cost of $2,500 each from Plains Manufacturing.Tristan ordered the refrigerators in anticipation of an order he was going to receive from a custom-home builder.Plains Manufacturing experienced a flood at its plant in Iowa City and lost all goods in production.They wereunable to deliver the refrigerators to Tristan and notified him immediately of the problem.Tristan has to purchase the 10 refrigerators from another plant at a cost of $3,000 each.​
-​Suppose that instead of a flood,Plains simply did not deliver the refrigerators.Which of the following is correct?
A)​Plains will need to pay the damages that Tristan experienced as a result of its failure to deliver - $500 X 10.
B)​Plains can use the defense of impracticability.
C)Plains is not in breach if there is advance notification that it cannot deliver.
D)This contract need not be in writing to be enforceable.

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

If Plains simply did not deliver the refrigerators, they would be in breach of contract and would need to pay the damages that Tristan experienced as a result of their failure to deliver. The damages would be calculated as the difference between the cost of the original order and the cost of purchasing the refrigerators from the other plant ($3,000 - $2,500 = $500), multiplied by the 10 refrigerators ordered ($500 x 10 = $5,000). Therefore, Option A is correct. Option B is incorrect because the defense of impracticability would only apply if there was an unforeseeable event that made performance impossible, which is not the case here. Option C is incorrect because advance notification of inability to deliver would not excuse the breach of contract. Option D is irrelevant as the enforceability of the contract does not impact the situation at hand.

Tristan Colbert Owns an Appliance Store