John Marshall

“ This instruction ought not to have been given unless it be true, that special damages for the breach of a contract can be awarded under no circumstances whatever; that an action for the breach of contract was equivalent, and only equivalent, to an action for money had and received for the plaintiffs' use. That the breach of contract consisted in the non-payment of two thousand two hundred petsos; not in the failure to invest that sum in tiles. In fact, that under all circumstances, if no money came to the hands of the defendants, the damages in such an action must be nominal. ”

“ A failure in this respect may entirely break up a voyage, and defeat the whole enterprise. We do not mean that speculative damages, dependent on possible successive schemes, ought ever to be given; but positive and direct loss, resulting plainly and immediately from the breach of orders, may be taken into the estimate. Thus in this case-an estimate of possible profit to be drived from investments at the Havana, of the money arising from the sale of the tiles, taking into view a distinct operation, would have been to transcend the proper limits which a jury ought to respect ”

“ The question whether the receipt and sale of the sugars at the Havana amounted to a ratification of the acts of Bell, De Yough and Co. at Leghorn, certainly depended on the circumstances attending that transaction. If Cunningham and Co., with full knowledge of all the facts, acted as owners of the wrapping paper without signifying any intention of disavowing the acts of their agents, an inference in favour of ratification might be fairly drawn by the jury. If the cargo from Leghorn was received and sold in the Havana under directions given at a time when Cunningham and Co. ”