Brockhurst v. Ryan

In February 1945, portraitist Gerald L. Brockhurst (plaintiff) verbally agreed to paint five portraits for Clendenin J. Ryan (defendant), one for each member of the Ryan family. Under the agreement, Ryan would pay $6,000 apiece for each of his three children’s portraits and $5,000 apiece for the portraits of himself and his wife, bringing the total amount for Brockhurst’s services to $28,000. The portraits were to be painted from live sittings, which Ryan agreed to arrange. Brockhurst began work soon thereafter and finished the portraits of Ryan’s wife and daughter by August 1946. In the same month, Ryan paid Brockhurst $11,000. Thereafter, Brockhurst mostly completed one of the three remaining portraits and started work on the other two. However, because of ongoing interruptions to sittings, none of these portraits were ever completed. The last sitting to take place for any of the portraits was in September 1946 with Ryan’s elder son. On April 20, 1948, Brockhurst’s agent wrote Ryan a letter in which he stated that Brockhurst believed they should forget about the youngest child’s portrait because its subject had aged so much in between sittings that it rendered the portrait obsolete. The letter also detailed Brockhurst’s eagerness to complete the remaining two portraits and asked Ryan to advise on when sittings could be arranged. On June 24, 1954, Brockhurst sued Ryan, alleging that Ryan had breached the contract by failing to complete the required sittings. Brockhurst sought the remaining $17,000 in promised payment. In response, Ryan argued that the agreement was rendered unenforceable by the statute of frauds and the statute of limitations. The case proceeded to a bench trial.