Where the defendant's obligation to pay money is dependent on an obligation of the plaintiff, still at least partially unperformed, to furnish property or services; the measure of damages has been considered in connection with contracts of employment,24 or of sale.25 Where the defendant is under a unilateral or independent obligation to pay a liquidated sum of money, the ordinary measure of damages for non-performance is the sum of money itself with interest at the legal rate from the time when it was due.26 In an action by a creditor against his debtor for the non-payment of the debt, no other damages are ever allowed.27 When a large order of goods is bought on credit from a seller known to have but little capital, it may be plainly foreseeable by the buyer when he enters into the transaction that failure to pay the price when it is due may ruin the seller financially, and such a consequence is both proximate and natural. The universality of the rule limiting damages to interest is therefore based on the policy of having a measure of damages of easy and certain application, even though occasionally leading to results at variance with the general principle of compensation. Where, however, there is an obligation to pay an indebtedness not to the promisee himself but on his behalf to a third person, consequential damages are frequently recoverable for breach of the contract. The commonest illustration of such damages occurs where a bank violates its contract with a depositor by failing to pay without legal excuse one of the latter's checks. If the depositor was a trader substantial damages may be allowed without proof of special damage; 28 and special damages if alleged and proved may be recovered by non-traders.29 And in any case the failure of one bound to make a payment of money to a third person may give a right to such consequential damages as can be brought within the ordinary rules governing such damages.30 Damages for breach of an obligation to pay foreign money are the same as for breach of an obligation to furnish a commodity, and the rules governing the enforcement of contracts for the sale of goods are applicable,31 except that by statute the rate of exchange, that is the value in the place of the forum of foreign money due abroad, is fixed.

24 Supra, Sec.Sec.1358 et seq.

25 Supra, Sec.Sec. 1378 et stq.

26 Federal Lumber Co. v. Reece (Ky.), 116 S. W. 783; Bethel v. Salem Imp. Co., 03 Va. 354, 25 S. E. 304, 33 L. R. A. 602, 57 Am. St. Rep. 808; Arnott v. Spokane, 6 Wash. 442, 33 Fac. 1063.

27 Loudon v. Taxing District, 104 U. S. 771, 26 L. Ed. 023; Board v. Roach, 174 Fed. 040, 00 C. C. A. 453; Bixby-Theireon Lumber Co. v. Evans, 167 Ala. 431, 52 So. 843, 20

L. R. A. (N. S.) 104, 140 Am. St. Rep. 47; Mutual Ins. Co. v. Cham-bliss, 131 Qa. 60, 61 S. E. 1034; Blue v. Capital Nat. Bank, 145 Ind. 518, 43 N. E. 655; Morrill v. Weeks, 70 N. H. 178, 180, 46 Atl. 32.

28 Wiley v. Bunker Hill Bank, 183 Mass. 405, 67 N. E. 655; James Co. v. Continental Nat. Bank, 105 Tenn. 1, 58 S. W. 261, 61 L. R. A. 255. See also Davis v. Standard Nat. Bank, 50 N. Y. App. D. 210, 63 N. Y. S. 764.