Case information

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Case summaries are prepared by the Office of the Registrar of the Supreme Court of Canada (Law Branch). Please note that summaries are not provided to the Judges of the Court. They are placed on the Court file and website for information purposes only.

Commercial law – Contracts – Damages - Applicant agreed to seed Respondent's acreage for fixed price – Respondent subsequently advised that lesser portion of seeding was available – Applicant refused and sued for value of contract – Small claims court judge found Applicant failed to mitigate damages and awarded $1,575, representing lost profit on portion of available seeding – Whether mitigation of damages was a viable alternative.

Stan Sheppard's company, the Applicant 6517633 Canada Ltd, sued the Respondent Knudsen & Sons Muddy View Ranch Ltd. for breaching a contract whereby the Company had agreed to custom seed 1,050 acres for Knudsen in exchange for a fixed price of $19,293.75. The contract was signed on May 29, 2014. The next evening, Gene Knudsen telephoned Mr. Sheppard to ask if he was prepared to do only a portion of the seeding and to "seed alongside us". Mr. Sheppard made it clear that he considered this to be a breach of the contract but said he would think about it. At around noon the next day, May 31, Mr. Sheppard called Gene Knudsen back and said he was not prepared to comprise his position. Mr. Sheppard then discovered a voicemail message from Gene Knudsen which Mr. Knudsen had left for him earlier in the day. In it, Mr. Knudsen had said, "[W]e got a guy" and had told Mr. Sheppard not to move his equipment to the Knudsen land. On June 2, after getting advice from his lawyer, Gene Knudsen called Mr. Sheppard and, as found by the trial judge, told Mr. Sheppard that the Company could seed until the job was done. At that point, between 70 and 100 acres had already been seeded. Mr. Sheppard rejected this invitation and sued Knudsen for $19,293.75, the value of the contract.