Re: Marine Safety Disclosure
Mustang, the way you describe, might be the case but we are all guessing; the contract and only the contract controls. There are non-refundable deposits; refundable deposits for no reason; or, more likely, deposits refundable on certain conditions. The contract will say.
if it is a "certain conditions" refund, we have to see the contract for the conditions. it might be 'any problem in the survey' and it might be "major problem in the survey" and it might be "specific problem in the survey" (example--transom rot, but not engine issues, are grounds to walk.)
So then the next step is to determine if the buyer breached the contract by not closing, or if he had a basis under the contract not to close. if he had a basis not to close, then we go back to the contract to see if the deposit is refundable or not, but he doesn't owe the damages.
Glenn, you are wrong about contract law, adn wrong about what a judge would ask. If the buyer breached the contract, the seller then "covers" by selling the goods, and then looks to the breaching buyer for his loss from the sale. So if buyer was to pay $13,000, breaches, and seller sells for $10,000, he owes the $3000 the seller lost from the lost sale (and other expenses, such as advertising, brokers fees, etc., but also less the deposit: $1000 here). But if the seller sold for more than $13,000, he does not owe the first buyer the difference. he probably also gets to keep the deposit, depending on the contract.
The buyer may be able to defend against the $3000 claim by proving failure to mitigate--for example, that the seller turned down a $12,000 sale and took the $10K.
If the seller is a seller of goods of that kind, there is a possibility that the "law of lost sales" applies and he gets to recover the whole $13,000, less the deposit, from the defaulting buyer. This may come up with a dealer with high cost/low volume goods, such as yachts.
