Revenue From Lost Crop Due To Broken Irrigation Pipe Not Recoverable.

The plaintiff owned 120 acres of farmland that was mostly irrigated by pivot irrigation.  However, the pivot could not reach a 6.5 acre corner which was irrigated by gravity irrigation fed by a pipe running along a fence line.  The defendant allegedly damaged a section of the pipe while removing and replacing fence.  The plaintiff discovered the damage in July of 2011 and the damaged pipe needed to be repaired by June 1 of 2012 to avoid crop damage in the 6.5 acre corner.  The plaintiff took the pipe in for a repair estimate on May 15 of 2012 and was told that the repair could be completed by June 1 at a cost of $1,772.40.  However, the plaintiff did not authorize the repair because he believed that the defendant's insurance company needed to approve the repairs.  The plaintiff had the financial ability to pay for the repair at that time.  On June 5, 2012, the defendant requested an estimate and offered to pay the plaintiff $1,772.40 to fix the pipe and offered the same amount in writing on August 21, 2012.  The pipe was not repaired in time for the 2012 crop year, but was repaired in time for the 2013 crop year at a cost of $2,854.83.  The plaintiff paid for the repair and was not compensated by the defendant.  The plaintiff sued in May of 2013 seeking $13,578.62 in damages for the cost of the pipe repair and the lost 2012 crop profits.  The trial court awarded the plaintiff $2,854.83 for the cost of the pipe repair, but nothing for lost profits because the plaintiff did not seek to repair the pipe within a reasonable amount of time. On appeal, the court affirmed.  The court determined that the plaintiff failed to mitigate damages by not simply paying for the pipe repair before June 1, 2012, and then being able to profit from the crops planted on the 6.5 acre tract.  The court noted that the plaintiff stood to profit from the impacted tract nearly four times the cost of repairing the pipe.  In addition, the defendant did not do anything to prevent the plaintiff from paying for the repair to the pipe to avoid the lost profits from the 2012 crop year.  Tedd Bish Farm, Inc. v. Southwest Fencing Services, LLC, 291 Neb. 527 (2015).