A reader alerted me to a recent opinion of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales in Lehman Brothers International (Europe) v. ExxonMobil Financial Services BV, [2016] EWHC 2699 (Comm) (here).
At issue was the meaning of the phrase close of business, as used in a notices provision in a contract. ExxonMobil submitted a notice to Lehman’s London offices at 6:02 p.m. on 22 September 2008. Was it timely? Lehman argued that close of business was 5:00 p.m.; ExxonMobil argued that it was 7:00 p.m.
As usual, I don’t care who won that particular argument (ExxonMobil). All I care about is avoiding fights. So the moral of this story is clear: don’t use the phrase close of business in contracts.
Updated 13 December 2017: Behold the following tweet by @cearta:
An exhortation that could have been written with Re Electron Holdings; McCann v Halpin [2013] IEHC 495 https://t.co/2OsGcEuBVR in mind https://t.co/Ru3ikbGKCd
— Eoin O'Dell (@cearta) December 12, 2016
