Identifying and Quantifying Government Contract Claims
Government Contract Changes and Modifications - Webinar
Coverage Litigation Leapfrog: Why Venue Matters and How to Avoid Pre-emptive Strike Actions
Troutman Pepper COVID-19 Legal Issues Podcast Series: COVID-19 Commercial Leasing Trends (Part Two)
Will COVID-19 Qualify as a ‘Material Adverse Effect’?
Making Effective Use of the Claims/Disputes Process
FCPA Compliance and Ethics Report-Episode 45, Interview with Justice Ken Wise
The importance of clear drafting cannot be overstated. Ambiguity of language can lead to disputes, costly litigation and unintended outcomes. The recent Court of Appeal judgment in Cantor Fitzgerald & Co v Yes Bank Ltd [2024]...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a district court’s summary judgment denial and determination that the definition of “beer” (which encompassed “other versions and combinations” of beer and malt...more
Contracts, real estate leases, and other legal documents also often include provisions that are mandatory (like obligatos) and/or are optional (like ossias). Terms such as "shall," "must," "will," "may," and "should” each...more
It is often appealing for businesses that are under pressure to get contracts signed to turn to template documents. While these templates can be very convenient, it is imperative, especially with regard to liability...more
Insurance coverage disputes often turn on the meaning of the specific words used in a policy. Norwegian Hull Club v. North Star Fishing Co., currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida,...more
Precious little legal analysis is required to grasp the lesson from Springbok Royalty Partners v. Cook. No mode or manner of legal gymnastics is likely to save parties from the legal effect of a contract they didn’t bother...more
Several years ago, unclear, ambiguous, and inconsistent contract language (not to mention some bizarre lawyer shenanigans) cost the owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers one-half of the team in divorce proceedings...more
In Hall v. Rag-O-Rama, LLC, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit affirmed the decision of a district court that rejected Sally Hall’s breach of contract claims based on a poorly worded contract provision. The 6th...more
A hotel franchisee brought a class action lawsuit in Louisiana federal court on behalf of Louisiana franchisees. The franchisor moved to transfer the action to Georgia, based on the mandatory forum selection clause in the...more
A franchisee sued real estate franchisor Century 21 for a declaration whether the franchisee could end its franchise agreement early despite a provision that deleted the franchisee’s early termination right. Noting the...more
In Endeavor Energy Resources, L.P. v. Energen Resources Corp. et al. the Supreme Court of Texas construed a continuous development clause in an oil and gas lease covering 11,300 acres in Howard County. After the primary term,...more
As hard as real estate agents, title companies, attorneys, and anybody else who drafts contracts, may strive for perfection in their drafting, it is not unusual for the finished product to include a provision that is...more
The New Jersey Supreme Court in late November 2019 heard oral argument in Flanzman v. Jenny Craig, Inc., 456 N.J. Super. 613 (App. Div. 2018), cert. granted, 237 N.J. 310 (2019), in which the Appellate Division boldly refused...more
Under Louisiana law, does the operator’s bad faith preclude recovery for the non-operator’s breach of a joint operating agreement if the operator caused the non-operator to breach the JOA but did not itself breach?...more
FRAUNHOFER-GESELLSCHAFT v. SIRIUS XM RADIO INC. Before Dyk, Linn, and Taranto. Appeal from the District of Delaware. Summary: Contract interpretation must be applied in determining whether a sublicense survives...more
Thanks to inexact language in a settlement agreement, a for-profit hospital chain can challenge whistleblowers’ eligibility for attorneys’ fees under the False Claims Act (“FCA”). The single sentence that spawned nearly 5...more
An employer learned the full cost of ambiguity when a Connecticut federal district court agreed with an employee’s widow that the word “maximum” was ambiguous in the company’s life insurance plan, thus making the widow...more
On May 1, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia held that a firearms exclusion in a general liability insurance policy applied to bar coverage for an underlying action arising from a shooting at the...more
Massachusetts Appeals Court Gets It Right – Mostly - Hot on the heels of the Federal Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in MTI, Inc. v. Employers Insurance Company of Wausau, __ F.3d __, 2019 WL 321423 (10th Cir....more
Triumph Aerostructures-Tulsa LLC v. Spirit Aerosystems Inc., C.A. N17C-11-262 MMJ CCLD (August 8, 2018) - Contracts often use the word “including” as part of a definition of a term. But is that to limit or enlarge what...more
Recall the Battle of the Bastards: The heroic Lady Sansa and the duplicitous Lord Baelish gallop over the hill to save the foolish Jon Snow from the heinous Ramsey Bolton. In similar fashion, but without the malnourished...more
North Shore Energy v. Harkins interpreted an Option Agreement between landowners and a producer over a 400 acre tract. In football they would say the Texas Supreme Court pancaked the plaintiff. In the law, some would call it...more
Despite best efforts, ambiguities are inevitable in contracts. The doctrine of contra proferentem shifts the risk of ambiguity to the party that drafted the contract. The doctrine is frequently applied against insurers where...more
On Monday, the Colorado Supreme Court issued its decision in American Family Mut. Ins. Co. v. Hansen, No. 14SC99 (Colo. June 20, 2016), holding that extrinsic evidence can only be used to interpret ambiguous policy language,...more
In the first four months of 2016 three more judgments relating to issues of contractual interpretation of provisions contained in documents of securitisation transactions (all three of them for legacy CMBS deals) and...more