Ambiguity

I got another tip from a participant at the recent “Drafting Clearer Contracts” seminar in Houston, although I didn’t have the wit to note his name. He suggested that I check out the 2004 opinion in SuperGuide Corp. v. DirecTV Enterprises, Inc., by then Circuit Judge (now Chief Circuit Judge) Sharon Prost of the United States Court of Appeals for the … Read More

Consider the following: If I don’t go to the movies because of your nagging … It conveys two possible meanings: If your nagging causes me not to go to the movies … If I go to the movies for one or more reasons other than your nagging … I encounter this sporadically in my general writing, but I don’t recall … Read More

Ah, what would life be without disputes over and and or! Here’s a fresh one (thanks to cousin Joshua Stein for alerting me) that arose in connection with a series of transactions that freed Caesars Entertainment from having to guarantee a portion of the $18 billion of debt of its subsidiary Caesars Entertainment Operating Co. As a result, investors lost something like $450 million on … Read More

I noticed a recent case out of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, Redmond v. Sirius International Insurance Corporation (here). The language at issue used and/or. Here’s what the court had to say: The plaintiff contends that the court must reconsider its denial of his motion for summary judgment because the use of “and/or” in the policy … Read More

Thanks to this post on Peter A. Mahler’s New York Business Divorce blog, I learned that in a recent opinion of the New York Supreme Court (despite the name, a lower court), a judge considered the implications of either … or. I wasn’t about to let that pass without chiming in—regular readers will know that I have a thing about … Read More

I’ve previously entertained you with court opinions addressing confusion over what part of a contract is being referred to in a contract provision. Who can forget the confusion over a “hereunder”? (See this post). Or over “except as provided below”? (See this post.) Well, I have another treat for you. (Yes, I know, I’m too generous.) The case is Bayerische Landesbank, New … Read More

Via prolific tipster Steven Sholk, I learned of this post, by Nathaniel Grow, on Sports Law Blog about baseball player Alex Rodriguez’s legal maneuvering in response to his being suspended by Major League Baseball for having taken performance-enhancing drugs. Here’s the part that caught my eye (hyperlinks omitted): However, as the arbitration decision reveals, Rodriguez’s suspension was not based on … Read More