Tag: course of dealing

15-Year ‘Course of Dealing’ Clarifies Oral Agreement for Tax Sale Notices – IL First Dist.

The would-be tax deed buyer in Wheeler Financial, Inc. v. Law Publishing Co., 2018 IL App (1st) 171495 claimed the publisher defendant’s erroneous sale date in a required tax sale notice thwarted its purchase of a pricey Chicago property.

A jury found for the publisher defendant on the buyer’s breach of oral contract claim since the plaintiff failed to properly vet the draft “Take Notice” (the statutory notice provided by a tax deed applicant that gives notice to the owner) supplied by the defendant before publication. The plaintiff appealed.

Affirming the jury verdict, the First District discusses the nature of express versus implied contracts, the use of non-pattern jury instructions and when course of dealing evidence is admissible to explain the terms of an oral agreement.

Course of dealing – Generally

There was no formal written contract between the parties. But there was a 15-year business relationship where the plaintiff would send draft tax deed petition notices to the defendant who would in turn, publish the notices as required by the Illinois tax code. This decade-and-a-half course of dealing was the basis for jury verdict for the publisher defendant.

Section 223 of the Restatement (Second) of Contracts defines a course of dealing as a sequence of previous conduct between parties to an agreement “which is fairly regarded as establishing a common basis of understanding for interpreting their expressions and other conduct.”

A course of dealing “gives meaning to or supplements or qualifies their agreement” and can be considered when determining the terms of an oral contract. Where contract terms are uncertain or doubtful and the parties have – by their conduct – placed a construction on the agreement that is reasonable, such a construction will be adopted by the court. [¶ ¶ 77-78]

Course of Dealing – The Evidence

Here, the course of dealing proof was found in both trial testimony and documents admitted in evidence.

At trial, current and former employees of the publisher defendant and plaintiff’s agent all testified it was the parties’ common practice for defendant to first provide draft Take Notices to plaintiff for its review and approval prior to publication. E-mails introduced in evidence at trial corroborated this practice.

In addition, plaintiff’s affiliated tax lien company’s own handbook contained a published policy of plaintiff reviewing all Take Notices for accuracy before the notices were published. [¶¶ 35, 83-85]

The appeals court agreed with the jury that the defendant sufficiently proved the parties course of dealing was that defendant would give plaintiff a chance to review the Take Notices before publication. And since the plaintiff failed to adhere to its contractual obligation to review and apprise the defendant of any notice errors, plaintiff could not win on its breach of contract claim. (This is because a breach of contract plaintiff’s prior material breach precludes it from recovering on a breach of contract claim.)

Jury Instructions and A Tacit Exculpatory Clause?

Since no Illinois pattern jury instruction defines “course of dealing,” the trial court instructed the jury based on Wald v. Chicago Shippers Ass’n’s (175 Ill.App.3d 607 (1988) statement that a prior course of dealing can define or qualify an uncertain oral agreement. [¶ 96] Since Wald accurately stated Illinois law on the essence and reach of course of dealing evidence, it was proper for the jury to consider the non-pattern jury instruction.

The court then rejected plaintiff’s argument that allowing the legal publisher to avoid liability was tantamount to creating an implied exculpatory clause. The plaintiff claimed that if the publisher could avoid liability for its erroneous notice date, the parties’ agreement was illusory since it allowed the defendant to breach with impunity.

The court disagreed. It held that the parties’ course of dealing created mutual obligations on the parties: plaintiff was obligated to review defendant’s Take Notices and advise of any errors while defendant was required to republish any corrected notices for free. These reciprocal duties placed enforceable obligations on the parties.

Afterwords:

Where specifics of an oral agreement are lacking, but the parties’ actions over time plainly recognize and validate a business relationship, a court will consider course of dealing evidence to give content to the arrangement.
Where course of dealing evidence establishes that a breach of contract plaintiff has assumed certain obligations, the plaintiff’s failure to perform those requirements will doom its breach of contract claim.

 

 

Course of Dealing Leads to Implied-In-Fact Contract Judgment in Construction Spat – IL First Dist.

While a signed agreement is almost always preferable to an oral one, the absence of a writing won’t always doom a breach of contract action.

Trapani v. Elliot Group, Inc., 2016 IL App (1st) 143734, examines what happens when parties don’t sign a contract but still act as if an agreement exists.

In a construction dispute, the First District affirmed a trial court’s finding that an implied-in-fact contract existed between the contractor plaintiff and the real estate developer defendant.  In upholding the $250K-plus judgment for the plaintiff, the Court highlights the nature and scope of implied contracts and discusses the agent-of-a-disclosed-principal rule.

The plaintiff submitted a draft contract that identified the defendant as “owner.”  The defendant, who wasn’t the owner (it was the developer), never signed the contract.

Despite the absence of a signed contract, the plaintiff performed the work contemplated by the draft agreement and was paid over $2M over a several-month period.  Plaintiff sued to recover for its remaining work after the developer refused to pay.  The developer denied responsibility for the plaintiff work: it claimed it merely acted as the owner’s agent and that plaintiff should have looked to the owner for payment.

The trial court entered judgment for the plaintiff.  It found that the plaintiff and developer, while lacking a signed written agreement, had an implied-in-fact contract.  The developer appealed.

Result: affirmed.

Reasons:

Whether an implied in fact contract (or “contract implied in fact”) exists depends on the surrounding facts, circumstances and expressions of the parties demonstrating an intent to be bound.

A contract implied in fact is a classic contract by conduct.  It arises where the court imposes a contractual duty on a party based on the party’s promissory expression that shows an intention to be bound;

The promissory expression can be inferred from the parties’ conduct and an implied in fact contract can be found even where there is no express contract between the parties;

An implied in law contract differs in that it is an equitable remedy based on the principle that no one should unjustly enrich himself at another’s expense;

Acceptance of an implied in fact contract can be shown by conduct of the parties and a course of dealing that demonstrates the parties’ intent to form a binding agreement.

(¶¶ 40-44)

The Court agreed with the trial court that the parties’ conduct supported a finding of an implied in fact contract.  The Court noted that throughout the construction project, the plaintiff communicated regularly with the defendant and provided lien waivers and payment certificates to the defendant.  The defendant also provided project specifications to the Plaintiff and approved multiple change orders over the course of plaintiff’s work on the site.  Significantly, the defendant never rejected plaintiff’s work or demanded that plaintiff stop working at any time during the project.

Next, the Court tackled the developer’s argument that it wasn’t liable to the plaintiff since the developer was acting as the agent of the property owner.  In Illinois, an agent who contracts with a third party generally is not liable so long as he discloses his principal’s identity.  Where the agent fails to identify his principal, it creates an “undisclosed principal” scenario which will make the agent personally liable if the contract is later breached. (¶ 60)

The reason for the undisclosed principal rule is reliance: the third party (here, the plaintiff) relies on the agent’s credit when entering the contract.  As a result, it would be unfair to immunize the agent and have the undisclosed principal shoulder the financial burden when the agent fails to reveal the principal.  The dearth of evidence showing a relationship between the developer (agent) and the owner (principal) led the Court to sustain the trial court’s finding that the developer was responsible for the outstanding amounts owed the plaintiff contractor.

Afterwords:

1/  An implied in fact contract is a valid, enforceable contract, despite a lack of express agreement.  Instead, the parties’ intention to be contractually liable can be shown through course of dealing between parties;

2/ The agent of a disclosed principal is generally immunized from liability.  However, where the agent fails to sufficiently disclose its principal’s identity, the agent remains liable if the plaintiff can show it relied on the agent’s credit and lacked notice of the agent’s principal’s identity.

 

Missing “Course Of Dealing” Evidence Dooms Wedding Dress Seller on Summary Judgment – IL ND

In a Memorandum Opinion and Order that quotes Neil Sedaka and Taylor Swift in its footnotes, the District Court in House of Brides, Inc. v. Angelo, 2016 WL 698093 (N.D.Ill. 2016), examines the quantity and quality of evidence required to win a summary judgment motion. 

The plaintiff sold wedding clothes on-line and in retail stores and the defendant was the plaintiff’s main supplier.  The plaintiff sued the dress maker in state court for breach of contract claiming many of the dresses were defective or shipped later than promised. 

After it removed the case to Federal court, the defendant counter-sued the plaintiff for unpaid invoices. The defendant moved for summary judgment on its counterclaims as well as on plaintiff’s claims.

Partly siding with the defendant, the court discussed some common Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) claims and defenses and the required elements of a summary judgment affidavit.

The UCC governs contracts for the sale of goods and wedding dresses constitute goods under the UCC.  A seller who delivers accepted goods to a buyer can sue the buyer for the price of the goods accepted along with incidental damages where a buyer fails to pay for the goods.  810 ILCS 5/2-709.

In a goods contract, written contract terms can be explained or supplemented by a “course of performance, course of dealing, or usage of trade.” However, written terms cannot be contradicted by evidence of a prior agreement or an oral agreement made at the same time as the written one by the parties.

Here, the plaintiff argued that the course of dealing showed that defendant routinely accepted late payments and so defendant’s “net 30” invoice language was excused.

The court rejected this argument.  It held that avoiding the 30-day payment deadline was a material change that would have to be in writing since the Statute of Frauds governs contracts for the sale of goods exceeding $500 and the dresses involved in this suit easily eclipsed that value.

The court also rejected the plaintiff’s set-off defense against the defendant’s breach of contract counterclaim since a set-off must relate to the same contract being sued on (the court’s example: a seafood buyer can’t set off the price of frogs’ legs because the seller previously sent bad fish in a previous order)

Next, the court struck the plaintiff’s affidavit in support of its breach of implied warranty of merchantability claim on the basis of hearsay. 

In Federal court, an affidavit in support of or opposing summary judgment must be based on personal knowledge, show the witness’s competence and constitute admissible evidence.  Conclusory statements or affidavit testimony based on hearsay is inadmissible on summary judgment.  

The plaintiff’s affidavit testimony that there were dress defects that required refunds was too vague to survive defendant’s summary judgment motion.  This was because no employee stated that he/she personally issued any refunds or had first-hand knowledge of any dress defects that warranted a refund. 

What’s more, the seller failed to offer any authenticated business records that showed either the claimed dress defects or the refund amounts.  Without admissible evidence, the plaintiff seller failed to challenge the defendant’s breach of contract claim and the court awarded summary judgment to the defendant.

Afterwords:

1/ This case shows importance of furnishing admissible evidence when challenging summary judgment;

2/ Hearsay evidence in a summary judgment affidavit will be rejected;

3/ Course of performance or course of dealing can augment or explain written contract terms but cannot contradict them;

4/ A set-off defense must pertain to contract being sued on instead of a separate agreement;