The case of Citgo Petroleum Corp. v. Ranger Enters., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58676 (Conn. Mar. 17, 2009), revolved around whether, as used in the context of a separation agreement, the word salary included bonuses. A careful drafter would want to avoid any confusion on that score. By the way, I don’t intend to devote a post to each instance … Read More
A court opinion doesn’t have to come from an exalted court in order for it to raise an issue of interest to drafters generally. A case in point is Managment Strategies v. Hous. Auth. of New Haven, 2009 Conn. Super. LEXIS 1550 (Conn. Super. Ct. June 2, 2009). In that case, the following release language was at issue: Upon completion … Read More
D.C. Toedt has posted on his On Technology Contracts blog this item about an opinion of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissing a case against Wal-Mart. Here’s D.C.’s summary: Wal-Mart requires its suppliers to agree to a code of conduct. It was sued, in California, by employees of suppliers in various Third World countries, on grounds that • the … Read More
In Comtide Holdings, LLC v. Booth Creek Mgmt. Corp., 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 15086 (6th Cir. July 2, 2009), the following provision was at issue: CLOSING. Broker shall receive reasonable notice of closing. The BROKER’s fee referred to in Paragraph 4 above is payable in full to the BROKER only upon closing of the escrow/settlement account and payment of the … Read More
Today I came across a blog post entitled, straightforwardly enough, “Looking for Advice on Contract Drafting.” It was posted on the Marquette University Law School faculty blog and was written by a part-time student by the name of Tiffany. Besides being a student, she holds down a job—she’s responsible for maintaining the templates of her company’s commercial contracts and preparing … Read More
Oxford University Press was kind enough to send me a review copy of their new book Elements of Contract Interpretation, by Steven J. Burton, a professor at the University of Iowa College of Law. I’m now going to repay them for their generosity by observing that I’m having a hard time getting into it. That has little to do with … Read More
Today sees the launch of webcast 5 in my series Drafting Clearer Contracts, which is being offered by West LegalEdcenter and is sponsored by Business Integrity. Webcast 5 will run as a “live” webcast starting at 1:00 p.m. EDT, meaning that I’ll be on hand to respond in writing to any questions submitted. Starting a day or two later, it … Read More
Hot on the heels of Venkat Balasubramani’s Twitter update reminding me of all those I have yet to convince came a message from one of the unconvinced. The individual in question had watched my first webcast and had some questions that we discussed by email. His second email to me ended with the following paragraph: If it is helpful to … Read More
Twitter has become a low-key part of my public profile (my Twitter ID is @AdamsDrafting). Links to my new blog posts go out automatically on Twitter; I indulge in the occasional bit of flagrant self-promotion, these days mostly about my webcasts; and I sporadically offer up any halfway rational and maybe-interesting thought that otherwise doesn’t have a home. But my focus … Read More
Thanks to reader Steven Sholk, I learned that the U.S. Supreme Court recently considered the “ordinary meaning” of the words because of. Here’s how the CCH Workday blog described the issue: Construing this critical preposition in the text of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), a five-Justice majority concluded the statute’s requirement that an adverse employment action was taken … Read More
