## Facts

- Carla Deitsch and her husband contracted with The Music Co. to provide a four-piece band for their wedding reception on November 8, 1980, for $295.
- The couple paid a $65 deposit at signing on March 27, 1980.
- Despite repeated confirmations, including a call the night before, the band did not appear at the reception and the couple could not reach the company during the event.
- The couple used a friend’s stereo equipment to supply music, and alleged the reception’s value and enjoyment were substantially diminished.
- The company’s president later admitted the nonappearance was a “mistake,” tied to personal issues and an unexplained internal marking of the contract as “cancelled.”
- The couple claimed total reception costs of about $2,643.59 and sought contract damages.

## Issues

1. Whether contract damages for a band’s failure to perform at a wedding reception are limited to out-of-pocket loss (the $65 deposit) or may include damages for physical inconvenience, discomfort, and mental anguish.
2. Whether the couple could recover the entire cost of the reception on the theory that the breach rendered the event a total loss.

## Decision

- A jury found The Music Co. liable for breach of the performance contract; the court determined the proper measure of damages.
- The court rejected awarding the entire reception cost as overcompensatory because the reception still occurred and provided some benefit.
- The court rejected limiting damages to return of the deposit as insufficient to compensate for the foreseeable non-pecuniary effects of the breach.
- Judgment for plaintiffs totaled $815: $65 deposit refund plus $750 for distress, inconvenience, and diminished enjoyment caused by the breach.

## Legal Principles

- Contract damages aim to place the injured party in as good a position as if the contract had been performed.
- Recoverable damages include those that arise naturally from the breach or were reasonably within the parties’ contemplation at contracting as probable results of breach.
- In Ohio, breach-of-contract damages may include compensation for physical inconvenience, discomfort, and mental anguish when such harms are the natural and probable consequence of the breach and were foreseeable in the contractual setting.
- For special-occasion performance contracts, courts may award a reasonable amount for loss of enjoyment and distress while avoiding windfall recovery for unrelated event expenses.

## Conclusion

The court held that a wedding-reception band’s failure to perform supported recovery beyond the deposit, including reasonable damages for foreseeable distress and inconvenience, but did not justify shifting the entire cost of the reception to the breaching party.


Deitsch v. The Music Co., 453 N.E.2d 1302 (Ohio Mun. Ct. 1983)