S-22-0488 Brush & Co., A Nebraska Corporation (Appellant) v. W.O. Zangger & Son, Inc., A Nebraska Corporation (Appellee)
Appeal from the District Court for Valley County, Judge Karin L. Noakes
Attorneys: Edward D. Hotz (Pansing Hogan Ernst & Bachman LLP for Appellant) and Donald L. Swanson and Elizabeth L. Enroth (Koley Jessen P.C., L.L.O. for Appellee)
Civil: Farm Lease and Breach of Contract
Proceedings below: Once renegotiations of a farm lease failed, Appellant brought suit against Appellees pursuant to a long-term farm lease. Following partial summary judgment and a bench trial, the district court found in favor of Appellee. On its own motion, the Supreme Court ordered this case to be transferred from the docket of the Court of Appeals to its docket.
Issues: Appellant Brush & Co. makes the following assignments of error: 1) The court erred by failing to find that WOZ’s (Appellee’s) insistence of a cap on rent, when such cap was not contemplated by the parties or provided for in the Farm Lease, was a violation of WOZ’s duty of good faith and fair dealing and, therefore, a breach of the contract; 2) The court erred by failing to interpret the Farm Lease to provide that the minimum rent could never be lower than $35,000, and Brush’s agreement on January 31, 2019, to that amount satisfied setting minimum rent for the next 3 years of the Farm Lease; 3) The court erred by erroneously eliminating claimed damages by prohibiting expectant contract damages and by limiting its damages to those incurred during the unsuccessful renegotiation of minimum rent; and 4) The court erred in not awarding damages for the crop year March 1, 2019, to February 29, 2020, even assuming WOZ’s interpretation is correct.