In a week of relative silence from the Seventh Circuit and a litany of published but not groundbreaking decisions out of the Indiana Court of Appeals, the Hoosier Litigation Blog turns to a decision from the Indiana Court of Appeals that chose to uphold a mandatory...
Contract Law
Seventh Circuit Permits Parol Evidence to Prove Fraud in the Inducement Despite Lack of Fraud in Integration Clause
Earlier this week the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a remarkable decision shedding great insight into the use of parol evidence to prove fraud in the inducement. After thorough examination, the court determined that the trial court had incorrectly...
Seventh Circuit: No Need for Specificity in Contract Dispute Liability Cap
Earlier today, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals handed down its decision in SAMS Hotel Group, LLC v. Environs, Inc. In the case, the court had to weigh in on a yet to be clearly decided aspect of Indiana law. Specifically, the court had to determine whether the...
Indiana Court of Appeals: Residential Insurance Policy Requiring Claim Against Insurer be Filed in Under 2 Years is Void
This past week the Indiana Court of Appeals handed down an important decision and major victory for the rights of residential property owners. The case, State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. v. Riddell National Bank, held that where an insurance policy covering residential...
Contract Interpretation and the Parol Evidence Rule
As our posts related to contract law are among the most popular for the Hoosier Litigation Blog, I have decided to dedicate this week’s post to providing a brief overview of contract interpretation. Included within the gambit of contract interpretation is the legal...
Court of Appeals Revisits Disclaimers and Integration Clauses in Contracts
This past week, the Indiana Court of Appeals had an opportunity to address the role of disclaimers and integration clauses in contracts. The case, Wind Wire, LLC v. Finney, revolves around a very straightforward set of facts. The Finneys received a flyer from Wind...
The Voluntary Payment Doctrine— The Most Profoundly Evil Legal Doctrine
This week’s post is dedicated to what I, and many others, consider to be a profoundly evil legal doctrine. It is known as the Voluntary Payment Doctrine. I have recently spent a great deal of time researching the doctrine for a journal article that I am drafting to...
Indiana Court of Appeals Revisits Enforceability of Liquidated Damages
This past week the Indiana Court of Appeals had an opportunity to revisit and to further develop Indiana breach of contract law. Specifically, the court weighed in on the issue of whether the requirement of the payment of $100,000 in earnest money for the $4 million...
Damages Pt. 12 — Contract Damages
This week’s post, brought to you by the attorneys at Pavlack Law, seeks to explain the various damages that can be recovered for the breach of a contract. Before jumping into the damages aspect it is important to realize that in a technical legal sense a contract is...