Topic
Contract Drafting
939 published works
Construction Payment Blog
Ambiguous Contract Forces Terminated Contractor to Pay Damages
Whenever accepting a new construction job, it’s critical that the agreement is put in writing. The contract should contain a clear outline of the obligations and expectations of each party.…
LawSites
Litera Acquires AI-Powered Contract Drafting Platform Bestpractix
By Bob Ambrogi
The document technology company Litera has acquired Bestpractix, a three-year-old, Israel-based company whose platform for contract review, negotiation and drafting uses natural language processing and machine learning to provide contract-drafting…
Property Insurance Coverage Law Blog
Every Word Matters in a Property Insurance Policy
By Shane Smith
“No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world.” —Robin Williams Carefully reading your insurance policy is crucial because the interpretation of just one word can…
Delaware Corporate & Commercial Litigation Blog
Supreme Court Interprets Key Words in Agreement
A recent Delaware Supreme Court decision is noteworthy for the approach it takes in determining the meaning of a word in an agreement, for example, by parsing the syntax and…
Between the Lines
Small Words in an Insurance Policy Make a Big Difference
image credit: moolanomy Contractor Not Covered Under Subcontractor’s Policy For Claim By Subcontractor’s Employee. The rules for interpreting a contract, including an insurance policy, require a court to give meaning…
Indian Arbitration Blog
SEAMEC v. OIL: Supreme Court on Power to Examine Plausibility of Arbitral Tribunal’s Interpretation of Contract
[This guest post is authored by Saurish Shetye. Saurish is an advocate practicing at the Bombay High Court. He can be reached at saurish.shetye@gmail.com] SEAMEC v. OIL: Supreme Court on…
Property Insurance Coverage Law Blog
Insurance Policies Should Be Easy To Read
Confucius once said, “life is simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” The same goes for insurance policies. Insurance policies are hard to read, and it should not be…
LawSites
Three Legaltech Companies, All in Contracts, Have Financing Rounds, for Total of $26M
By Bob Ambrogi
We may all be working from home, but that doesn't mean investment money isn't flowing into legaltech — and particularly into legaltech for commercial contracts. This week, three companies, all…
China Law Insight
拥有约束力的合同和默示条款哪一个具备优先效力？
By King & Wood
作者：Barri Mendelsohn Jenny Willcock、Cassandra Ditzel、Daniel Jones 金杜律师事务所 在英格兰和威尔士法院于2019年审理的若干案件中，法院倾向于从合同中解读默示条款。我们在此分析了其中2个案例，即Wells诉Devani案和雷曼兄弟国际公司（欧洲）（申请破产管理令程序中）诉Exotix Partners LLP案，并在下文阐述了我们的观点。 Wells诉Devani [2019] UKSC 4 案件事实 某从事公寓出售业务的房地产开发商被介绍给一名房地产经纪人，该经纪人通过电话告知开发商，其帮助出售此类公寓收取的费用为售价的2%（作为佣金）加上增值税。通话后不久，该经纪人成功出售了所有的公寓，并通过电子邮件向开发商告知了这一好消息，再次书面列明了其收取的费用，并根据《1979年地产代理法》（“1979年法”）第18条附上了有关他的委托条款。 该经纪人在完成出售后要求对方支付佣金，但开发商拒绝支付，其中的某项论据即由于不存在有关触发付款的关键性条款，因此有关其向代理人支付佣金的合同因不够明确而不具有约束力。 一审法院、上诉法院和最高法院需解决的问题是，能否从协议中解读出有关触发付款的默示条款。 判决结果 一审法院认定，如果某项条款是实现当事人意图所必需的，则可以解读此类默示条款。因此，法院按照最易开发商理解的方式进行了解读，即付款的触发条件为完成出售。上诉法院不同意上述观点，认为在不存在具有约束力的合同的情况下解读默示条款是本末倒置。由于“缺失”的条款对合同的存在至关重要，上诉法院认定不存在具有约束力的合同，因此也无法从该合同中解读出默示条款。 在之后的上诉中，最高法院持有不同意见，并认为在房地产市场中，触发付款的条件非常明显，即佣金将在出售完成时进行支付，并从出售所得的收入中收取。重要的是，最高法院区分了协议过于模糊和不确定以致无法执行或解读默示条款的情况，以及协议尽管缺少基本条款但仍可执行的情况。 在审议是否应当从协议中解读出付款的触发条件时，最高法院审查了市场上存在的一系列付款的触发条件——从 (i) 经纪人介绍潜在的买方，并在介绍的基础上要求支付佣金，而无论是否完成出售（此即对开发商最不利的条款），到 (ii) 经纪人要求在出售完成时从出售所得的收入中支付其佣金（即本案的情形）。尽管最高法院不一定从协议中解读出更为不利的默示条款，但其完全可以从协议中解读出更为有利的（也是明显的）条款。 雷曼兄弟国际公司（欧洲）（申请破产管理令程序中）诉Exotix Partners LLP [2019] EWHC 2380…
Crunched Credit
“I Was Just Following Orders”
By Rick Jones
My last commentary, Playing with Broken Toys in Coronavirus Land, touched on the notion that sometimes following rules can guarantee a bad outcome. I’ll leave more important musings about ethics…