Kvassay v. Murray
Kansas Court of Appeals
808 P.2d 896 (1991)
Facts
Michael Kvassay (plaintiff) contracted to sell 24,000 cases of baklava to the Murrays (defendants). The contract provided that the Murrays would be Kvassay’s only customer and that, if the Murrays repudiated or would not accept delivery, Kvassay would be entitled to liquidated damages of $5.00 per undelivered case. The amount of liquidated damages was based on Kvassay’s calculation, made prior to the contract, that he stood to profit $3.55 per case after paying himself or $4.29 per case if he did not pay himself. After 3,000 cases were delivered, the Murrays refused to accept any more. Kvassay sued them for $105,000, based on the liquidated damages provision. The trial court ruled that the liquidated damages provision was void as a penalty because Kvassay had only earned about $20,000 the previous year.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Walker, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 710,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 44,600 briefs, keyed to 983 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
