Harper and Associates v. Printers, 46 Wn.App. 417 (1986)
The next thing I will do for all the individual presentations is to ask the presenter to give a summary of the facts of the case. These should include the material facts that will help everyone else understand the issue(s) of the case.
Printers submitted the low bid to Harper & Associates (Harper) to a manufacture high quality fine arts poster to be sold as an art piece. The bid included the printing of invitations to a show at the gallery and of postcards related to the posters. The postcards were to be sent to 2,000 galleries to promote the sale of the posters. Harper planned a show at its gallery, and was the subject of the poster and invatations.
One week before the show, Harper checked the posters and rejected them as “unsuitable in color” Harper accepted the poor quality invitations because they were necessary for the show. The postcards were not completed until after the show had ended on November 18, 1981. The postcards were rejected because they did not meet USPS postal card requirements for size.
In January of 1982, Harper came up with an alternative sales plan for the posters. A local art poster wholesaler agreed to purchase the posters for resale by him at a price of $5 each. Harper had intended to sell the posters at a price of $12.50 each.
On January 11, 1982, Printers delivered the second run of posters to Harper. Harper examined the posters and 2 days after delivery contacted Printers’ agent and told them there were problems with the second printing and that he should come look at them. The posters were returned to Printers the first week of February 1982. Harper’s attorney wrote to Printers demanding complete performance by February 18, performance was not made.
Harper then contracted with another printer to produce only the posters, but at a higher price.
For any presentations that involve contracts, presenters will want to list/describe the contract terms that gave rise to the dispute between the parties.
Then you would want to give the procedural posture in the case.
Buyer brought action against seller, which was to manufacture high quality fine arts posters, seeking damages for alleged breach of sales contract. In April of 1982, Harper sued for damages for Printers’ failure to timely deliver posters, postcards, and invitations, and for its failure to deliver posters of a quality suitable for sale. Printers first argues that the trail court erred by denying its motion to add the affirmative defense of impossibility. Impossibility may be an affirmative defense in a contract case. Because this case involves a sale of goods, the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) governs analysis of the issues.
After the presenter has given the background info and procedural posture, I'll be anticipating a discussion of the basic background area(s) of law involved. At a minimum, this will include whatever I've put in parentheses after the citation of the case you chose.
(types of damages and defenses available in contracts for the sale of goods under the UCC)
I'll just add that there will almost always be related topics, which figure into the court's analysis. that you'll want to do some explaining about the background law, so that when you're explaining the court's analysis in your specific case, it all makes better sense.
From that general background law explanation, I'll move the presenter to the specifics of the chosen case.
Once you finish with the court's analysis, I would ask what the court's answer was to the question asked in the issue. (or I'd just ask what the court's actual conclusion was)
So you can see how your conclusion should do several things: 1) answer the question posed by the issue, 2)explain, in summary, the rationale of the court, and 3) explain what happened to the case (trial court's ruling affirmed/reversed, etc.).