Law Commons^™

Tallman V. Eight Judicial District Court, 131 Nev. Adv. Op. 60673 (Sep. 24, 2015), Marta Kurshumova

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court held that an employment arbitration agreement, which contains a clause waiving the right to initiate or participate in class actions, constitutes a valid contract, even though it is not signed by the employer. The Court further determined that the Federal Arbitration Act applies to all transactions involving commerce and does not conflict with the National Labor Relations Act, which permits and requires arbitration. Finally, the Court found that a party does not automatically waive its contractual rights to arbitration by removing an action to federal court.

Am. First Fed. Credit Union V. Soro, 131 Nev. Adv. Op. 73 (Sep. 24, 2014), Katherine Maher

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

The Court determined that a contract clause in which the parties “submit themselves to the jurisdiction of” another state, without more exclusive language, is permissive and does not result in a mandatory forum selection clause.

Land Baron Invs. V. Bonnie Springs Family Lp, 131 Nev. Adv. Op. 69 (Sept. 17, 2015), Rob Schmidt

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

This case is an appeal arising from a failed land sale contract. The Court considered three issues of first impression, holding that (1) when a party bears the risk, mutual mistake is not a basis for rescission; (2) an abuse of process claim may not be supported by a complaint to an administrative agency; (3) a nuisance claim seeking only emotional distress damages must be supported by proof of physical harm. Ultimately, The Court affirmed in part and reversed in part.

Brief Of Restitution And Remedies Scholars As Amici Curiae In Support Of Respondent: Spokeo V. Robins, Doug Rendleman, Douglas Laycock, Mark P. Gergen

Scholarly Articles

Both consumer protection and restitution may be casualties in a collision with the constitutional law of standing.
/="/">
/="/">Spokeo collects information from the internet and publishes it; however, Spokeo neither verifies the facts nor confirms which same-named person it refers to. Robins alleges that Spokeo violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by disseminating false information about him. He seeks class certification and up to $1,000 in statutory minimum damages instead of compensatory damages. Spokeo argues that Robins lacks standing because he suffered no “injury in fact,” no “concrete harm.”
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/="/">Statutory minimum recoveries for defendants’ violations of plaintiffs’ …

Dikai Emporikai: A Response To Alberto Maffi, Mark J. Sundahl

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

No abstract provided.

Contract Remedies In Action: Specific Performance, Yonathan A. Arbel

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Customized Procedure In Theory And Reality, W. Mark C. Weidemaier

Washington and Lee Law Review

Contract theory has long posited that parties can maximize contract value by manipulating the procedural rules that will apply if there is a dispute. Beyond choosing a litigation or arbitration forum, parties can allocate costs and fees, alter pleading standards, adjust evidentiary and discovery rules, and customize nearly every aspect of the adjudication process. In time, this theoretical insight became a matter of faith. The assumption that contracts routinely alter procedural rules spawned debate over the normative implications of allowing parties to dictate procedure. Only recently have a few studies suggested that this debate may lack a firm empirical foundation. …

Disentangling Choice Of Law For Torts And Contracts, Rick Kirgis

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

In a federal system with state lines that are easily crossed, physically and electronically, legal disputes often raise choice-of-law issues. Common among those disputes are torts and contracts cases. The courts have taken a variety of approaches to these cases, leading to inconsistent results that depend largely on which forum the plaintiff selects. Judicial fairness and economy dictate, or should dictate, that the choice-of-law issues be resolvable consistently and without unnecessarily tying up the courts or imposing large litigation costs, if it can be done in a principled manner. This article shows how it could be done.

Double Diamond V. Second Jud. Dist. Ct., 131 Nev. Adv. Op. 57 (July 30, 2015), Janine Lee

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

NRS 116.3105(2) permits homeowners associations to terminate contracts at any time if the declarant did not enter into the contract in good faith or if the contract was unconscionable to the units’ owners at the time of contract formation.[1] The statute requires that an association provide at least 90 days notice of termination under this provision. The 90-day notice period in NRS 116.3105(2) does not operate as a statute of limitations nor does it shift the burden to a notice recipient to file an action. Instead, NRS 11.190 is applicable, resulting in either a four-year or six-year statute of …

Newsroom: Boss '97: Gc At Care New England, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Good Faith: A New Look At An Old Doctrine, Robert S. Adler, Richard A. Mann

Akron Law Review

In this article we sketch the basic contours of the contractual policing devices that apply to special relationships and to arm's length transactions. We then explicate in greater detail the duty of good faith under general contract law and the Uniform Commercial Code. Finally, we explore some strategies for shortening arm's length transactions through consensual extensions of the duty of good faith.

Internet Giants As Quasi-Governmental Actors And The Limits Of Contractual Consent, D. A. Jeremy Telman

Law Faculty Publications

Although the government’s data-mining program relied heavily on information and technology that the government received from private companies, relatively little of the public outrage generated by Edward Snowden’s revelations was directed at those private companies. We argue that the mystique of the Internet giants and the myth of contractual consent combine to mute criticisms that otherwise might be directed at the real data-mining masterminds. As a result, consumers are deemed to have consented to the use of their private information in ways that they would not agree to had they known the purposes to which their information would be put …

Get The Best Of Both Worlds: Illusory Arbitration Agreements, Desiree Shay

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This Note addresses the clauses in franchise-franchisee agreements that preserve the right for a franchisor to unilaterally alter the terms of arbitration after the franchise relationship has begun. A majority of courts, applying state contract law, have held that these clauses are unenforceable due to a lack of consideration, making the contract illusory. However, courts still come to different conclusions because each court has to follow state contract law. The United States Supreme Court’s holding on this issue might not be able to have full effect because the Federal Arbitration Act requires that courts rely on state law. The Seventh …

Not Open For Business: A Review Of South Carolina's Arbitration Venue Statute, And A Proposal For Reform, Katherine H. Flynn

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Good-Cause Statutes Revisited: An Empirical Assessment, Adi Ayal, Uri Benoliel

Indiana Law Journal

One of the most vital debates in franchise law focuses on whether state or federal law should adopt “good-cause statutes” (GCSs), which require franchisors to show good cause before terminating contractual relations with a franchisee. The traditional law-and-economics analysis suggests that GCSs are inefficient. This inefficiency argument is based upon one central hypothesis: GCSs increase franchisee free riding since they limit the franchisor’s ability to terminate the franchise contract easily. The free-riding hypothesis has been significantly influential in the development of franchise law, as is evident in state and federal statutory regimes. To date, the majority of states and the …

Introducing The 'New Handshake' To Expand Remedies And Revive Responsibility In Ecommerce, Amy J. Schmitz

Faculty Publications

There was a time when individuals would meet in person to make purchases and do deals. They would discuss the terms, assess the trustworthiness and character of their contracting partners, and conclude the deal with a handshake. The handshake helped ensure the enforcement of the deal without need for the rule of law or legal power. That handshake was one’s bond — it was a personal trust mark. With the emergence of eCommerce, however, that handshake has nearly disappeared along with the sense of responsibility it inspired. Accordingly, this article discusses how this has impacted consumers’ access to remedies regarding …

Be Careful What You Do Not Ask For: Contracts With The Federal Government For Which Purely Nonmonetary Relief Exists In The Event Of Breach Must Provide For Monetary Damages To Make Them Available To Non-Breaching Private Parties, Matthew W. Cecil

Journal of Dispute Resolution

By further limiting access to one of the only forums in which private parties may seek monetary damages over $10,000 from the federal government, the United States Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Higbie v. United States1 has ensured non-breaching private parties will not be wholly compensated for their injuries and has undermined the court’s own interest in bolstering mediation.

Contract Law [2014], Yihan Goh, Pey Woan Lee, Chee Ho Tham

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

No abstract provided.

Disappearing Ink: The Emerging Duty To Remove Invalid Policy Provisions, Robert L. Tucker

Akron Law Review

This list includes only these decisions of the state’s court of last resort. It does not even begin to touch upon the provisions invalidated by decisions of inferior trial courts and intermediate courts of appeal which, for one reason or another, never reached the Supreme Court. And those intermediate appellate courts, it should be noted, have not limited themselves to invalidating provisions that are contrary to state statutes. In at least one case, a court of appeals held that an “other owned auto” exclusion in an uninsured motorist endorsement was invalid and unenforceable, even though the provision was expressly permitted …

Restrictive Covenants In Illinois: Adequate Consideration Problems Show That The Common Law Is An Inadequate Solution, David S. Repking

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Illinois courts have long dealt with whether restrictive covenants, specifically non-compete clauses, can and should be enforced when they involve employees of businesses. Many aspects of restrictive covenants have been litigated, but a recent Illinois Appellate Court case analyzed the issue of what is adequate consideration in order to enforce a restrictive covenant against a former employee. The First District in Fifield v. Premier Dealer Services, Inc., affirmed a bright-line, two-year rule for deciding how long an employee must work for an employer before a re-strictive covenant can be enforced.

The two-year rule protects employees because an employer cannot …

A Baby Step: The Status Of Surrogacy Law In Wisconsin Following Rosecky V. Schissel, Joshua J. Bryant

Marquette Law Review

Surrogacy is an ancient and rapidly expanding industry in the United States and abroad. Despite this, the legal landscape governing surrogacy contracts remains tenuous in a majority of states—including Wisconsin. In 2013, the Wisconsin Supreme Court took the first step in developing surrogacy contract law in Wisconsin. Absent legislative guidance, the court fashioned a reasonable foundation for surrogacy contracts. However, its decision does little to ensure that intending parents and surrogate mothers who enter into such agreements fully understand their responsibilities and have assurances that their expectations will be met. This Comment does not seek to argue, as many others …

Contractual Excuse Under The Cisg: Impediment, Hardship, And The Excuse Doctrines, Larry A. Dimatteo

Pace International Law Review

This article will examine the law of excuse as espoused in the Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG). It will examine the relevant case law applying the doctrine of impediment found in CISG Article 79. The question posed in this analysis is whether the word “impediment” relates only to the occurrences of force majeure, impossibility and frustration of purpose events or if it also includes changed circumstances, impracticability and hardship events. For purposes of simplicity, the first set of excuse or exemption doctrines will be analyzed under the heading of “impossibility” and the second set will …

The Conformity Of The Goods To The Contract In International Sales, Villy De Luca

Pace International Law Review

The present article aims to provide a general overview on the issue of conformity of the goods to the contract as regulated by Article 35 of the Convention on Contracts for the International Sales of Goods (“CISG”).

The analysis will focus on Article 35 CISG and, after having retraced the history that led to the current formulation of the provision, will concentrate on the implications following the adoption of a “unitary” notion of conformity. The evaluation will proceed focusing on the single express and implied conformity obligations covered, respectively, in the first and second paragraphs of Article 35 CISG.

The …

Too Clever By Half: Reflections On Perception, Legitimacy, And Choice Of Law Under Revised Article 1 Of The Uniform Commercial Code, Mark Edwin Burge

William & Mary Business Law Review

The overwhelmingly successful 2001 rewrite of Article 1 of the Uniform Commercial Code was accompanied by an overwhelming failure: proposed section 1-301 on contractual choice of law. As originally sent to the states, section 1-301 would have allowed non-consumer parties to a contract to select a governing law that bore no relation to their transaction. Proponents justifiably contended that such autonomy was consistent with emerging international norms and with the nature of contracts creating voluntary private obligations. Despite such arguments, the original version of section 1-301 was resoundingly rejected, gaining zero adoptions by the states before its withdrawal in 2008. …

Courts Gone “Irrationally Biased” In Favor Of The Federal Arbitration Act?—Enforcing Arbitration Provisions In Standardized Applications And Marginalizing Consumer-Protection, Antidiscrimination, And States’ Contract Laws: A 1925–2014 Legal And Empirical Analysis, Willy E. Rice

William & Mary Business Law Review

Spanning nearly forty years, the Supreme Court has issued multiple decisions and stated categorically that “judicial hostility to arbitration” was the sole impetus behind Congress’s decision to enact the Federal Arbitration Act of 1925. In fact, before the FAA, systemic trade-specific problems and practices generated heated disputes and widespread litigation among merchants and trade organizations. Thus, to arrest those constituents’ concerns, Congress enacted the FAA. Briefly, under the FAA section 2, arbitration is mandatory if a contractual arbitration provision is valid and a controversy “arises out of the contract.” However, common-law rules of contract formation are equally clear: Standing alone, …

Indiana And Doux Commerce, Nathan B. Oman

Popular Media

No abstract provided.

Duress As Rent-Seeking, Mark Seidenfeld, Murat C. Mungan

Faculty Scholarship

The doctrine of duress allows a party to avoid its contractual obligations when that party was induced to enter the contract by a wrongful threat while in a dire position that left it no choice but to enter the contract. Although threats of criminal or tortious conduct clearly are wrongful, under the doctrine of “economic duress” courts have held that other threats can be wrongful and hence the basis of a duress defense. Courts, however, have not developed a coherent understanding of what makes such non-criminal and non-tortious threats wrongful.

This Article proposes that a threat should be wrongful when …

The Need For A Law Of Church And Market, Nathan B. Oman

Faculty Publications

This Essay uses Helfand and Richman’s fine article to raise the question of the law of church and market. In Part I, I argue that the question of religion’s proper relationship to the market is more than simply another aspect of the church-state debates. Rather, it is a topic deserving explicit reflection in its own right. In Part II, I argue that Helfand and Richman demonstrate the danger of creating the law of church and market by accident. Courts and legislators do this when they resolve questions religious commerce poses by applying legal theories developed without any thought for the …

Helping Buyers Beware: The Need For Supervision Of Big Retail, Rory Van Loo

Faculty Scholarship

Since the financial crisis, consumer regulators have closely supervised sellers of credit cards and home mortgages to stamp out anticompetitive practices. Supervision programs give financial regulators ongoing access to sophisticated firms' internal data outside the litigation process. This often enables examiners to identify and correct harmful conduct more rapidly and effectively than would be possible using publicly available information and cumbersome legal tools.

Consumers spend four times more on retail goods than on financial products. The retail sector’s dominant firms — such as Amazon, Walmart, Unilever, and Kraft — employ large teams of quantitative experts armed with advanced information technologies, …

Religious Tribunals And Secular Courts: Navigating Power And Powerlessness, Michelle Greenberg-Kobrin

Pepperdine Law Review

In this article, the author discusses the ways such as common law, and contracts employed by religious systems for navigating their relationship with legal systems of secular states. Topics discussed include the role of religious contracts in helping religious systems negotiate with secularism, the role of religious contracts in protecting autonomy of religious systems, and the structure of marriage and divorce in Jewish law.