Group G's Answer

Mr. Simpson:

    Thank you for hiring me as your legal representative.

Advice RE:  Smither's potential breach of contract claim against you.

    You breached your contract when you made the doll house off the Lisa's blueprints and not the Malibu beach house blueprints.  However, to determine damages, Smither's can only collect those damages taht were reasonably foreseeable.  As the court stated in Hadley v. Baxendale, "where two parties have made a contract which one of them has broken, the damages which the other party ought to receive in respect of such breach of contract should be such as may fairly and reasonably be considered either arising naturally, i.e., according to the usual course of things, from such breach of contract itself, or such as may reasonably be supposed to have been in the contemplation of both parties, at the time they made the contract, as the probably result of the breach of it." 552

    Smither's is going to argue that he needed the doll house to be a perfect Malibu beach house and he was the trying to make a good impression at the convention.  Smither's told Homer "now Simpson, I'm counting on you - I need to make a good impression at the Convention.   There is an opening for the editor of Malibu Stacy Monthly and my display just has to be perfect."  Because of the bad presentation at the convention, Smothers was not given the job as editor of the Malibu Beach House Monthly.  Contrary, he was written a blistering letter from Ms. Levelle, the inventor and owner of all things Malibu Stacy, that said Smothers' use of a Lisa Lionheart theme for his display brought unwanted attention to Malibu Stacy's "outdated" image and that he created a "PR disaster."  Furthermore, Smithers was not able to double his salary because he did not get the job at the Monthly magazine.

    I would advise you to argue that Smithers never made it clear to you that the doll house had to be specifically the Malibu Stacy Beach house.  Although Smothers said he wanted to make a good impression on the monthly magazine, he did not explicitly say to you that his job application as the editor-in-chief hinged on the presentation at the convention.  Because you were not aware of Smothers potential employment opportunity, it was not foreseeable that Smothers would not get a job at the Monthly magazine.  Therefore, Smithers can not collect for the difference in this current salary and the salary that the Monthly magazine was offering.

    Smithers is going to claim that he suffered emotional distress from the embarrassment and humiliation he felt when the doll house he unveiled was not the Malibu Stacey Beach House.  As stated in Restatements § 353, recovery for emotional disturbance will be excluded unless the breach also caused bodily harm or the contract or the breach is of such a kind that serious emotional disturbance was a particularly kind result.  However, Smothers was not physically hurt and the emotional disturbance he suffered was not of teh magnitude to satisfy.

   Furthermore, damages are not recoverable for loss beyond an amount that the evidence permits to be established with reasonable certainty. (R. § 352).  Smithers was not guaranteed the job even if he presented a perfect Malibu Stacey Beach doll house.  Therefore, the damages could not been established with reasonable certainly.

   Mr. Simpson, this is a very close issue that could go either way.  Smithers has a valid argument that is based on solid law.  Therefore, the possibility that Smithers is going to get a winning judgment is in his favor.