Short answer. Article 1596 measures your damage as the estimated loss directly and naturally resulting from the buyer's breach. If there is an available market for the goods, damages default to the difference between the contract price and the market price when the goods should have been accepted, absent special circumstances.
What the law says
The measure of damages is the estimated loss directly and naturally resulting in the ordinary course of events from the buyer's breach of contract. Where there is an available market for the goods in question, the measure of damages is, in the absence of special circumstances showing proximate damage of a different amount, the difference between the contract price and the market or current price at the time or times when the goods ought to have been accepted, or, if no time was fixed for acceptance, then at the time of the refusal to accept.
Civil Code, Article 1596 — Seller's Action for Damages (Non-Acceptance). Read the full provision →
The general measure: your natural, direct loss
Article 1596 first states the general standard: the measure of damages is the estimated loss directly and naturally resulting in the ordinary course of events from the buyer's breach of contract. This grounds your recovery in what actually flowed from the buyer's wrongful refusal to accept the goods, rather than in speculative or remote consequences. Whatever loss you suffered as a natural, ordinary result of the buyer walking away from the deal is what this article aims to compensate.
The market-price formula when one applies
Where the goods have an available market, the article supplies a more concrete formula: where there is an available market for the goods in question, the measure of damages is, in the absence of special circumstances showing proximate damage of a different amount, the difference between the contract price and the market or current price at the time or times when the goods ought to have been accepted, or, if no time was fixed for acceptance, then at the time of the refusal to accept. In practice, if your contract price was higher than what the goods were fetching on the market at the relevant time, that gap is generally what you can recover.
Why the timing of the comparison matters
The article ties the market-price comparison to a specific moment: when the goods should have been accepted under the contract, or, if no acceptance date was fixed, when the buyer actually refused to accept them. Pinning down that exact date matters because market prices for goods can shift, and the difference the law measures is calculated as of that particular point in time rather than at whatever moment later suits either party's convenience.
When the market-price formula does not control
This formula applies only in the absence of special circumstances showing proximate damage of a different amount, meaning it is a default rather than an absolute rule. If your actual loss was demonstrably different from the simple contract-versus-market gap, for instance because of costs specific to your situation, that different amount can be shown instead. The article also separately accounts for labor or expenses you incurred before the buyer's repudiation, and any profit you would have made had the sale gone through, both of which factor into the damages awarded.