1. George Mason School of Law
Contracts II
Terms
© F.H. Buckley
Not for sharing

2. So now we have an enforceable contract But what is its content?

3. Identifying the Terms and Interpreting them
Identifying: what are the terms
Interpreting: what do they mean?

4. What happens where there is a writing?
First question: Is this a binding contract?

5. What happens where there is a writing?
Unsigned terms
Birmingham TV v. Waterworks at 431

6. The effect of a signature
Fraud in the factum? Curtis v. Curtis at 437
Justin Bieber signs
an autograph

7. Identifying the terms
So assume we have a contract—but what are its terms? 7

8. The Parol Evidence Rule
Do we look outside the written contract?
Oral statements
Course of dealings
Trade customs
Implied terms

9. The traditional Parol Evidence Rule
Burke at 549 in Masterson
Parol evidence is not admitted to “add to, vary or contradict” the writing

10. The traditional Parol Evidence Rule
Burke at 549 in Masterson
Parol evidence is not admitted to “add to, vary or contradict” the writing
The “four corners” rule: a presumption of full integration that excludes oral and other evidence

11. How would the Restatement change this
Completely integrated agreements
Partially integrated agreements
Non-integrated agreements 11

12. How would the Restatement change this
Completely integrated agreements:
Four corners rule: can’t add to
Partially integrated agreements
Can add to but can’t contradict
Non-integrated agreements
Anything goes 12

13. Non-integrated agreements
Is the agreement integrated or non-integrated?
§209(1) An integrated agreement is a writing or writings constituting a final expression of one or more terms of an agreement.
Otherwise parol evidence admitted 13

14. Complete Integration
Restatement §210(1) A completely integrated agreement is an integrated agreement adopted by the parties as a complete and exclusive statement of the terms of the agreement. 14

15. Complete Integration
Restatement §210(1) A completely integrated agreement is an integrated agreement adopted by the parties as a complete and exclusive statement of the terms of the agreement.
So no parol evidence of any kind:
Can’t add to, vary or contradict 15

16. Complete Integration: Can’t “Add to”
Restatement § 213(2) A binding completely integrated agreement discharges prior agreements to the extent that they are within its scope.
I.e., can’t “add to, vary or contradict” 16

17. Integrated Agreements
Is this an integrated agreement?
§209(3) Where the parties reduce an agreement to a writing which in view of its completeness and specificity reasonably appears to be a complete agreement, it is taken to be an integrated agreement unless it is established by other evidence that the writing did not constitute a final expression. 17

18. Integrated Agreements
Is this an integrated agreement?
§209(3) Where the parties reduce an agreement to a writing which in view of its completeness and specificity reasonably appears to be a complete agreement, it is taken to be an integrated agreement unless it is established by other evidence that the writing did not constitute a final expression.
Does this always permit oral evidence? 18

19. Partial Integration
Restatement §210 (2) An agreement is not completely integrated if the writing omits a consistent additional agreed term which is
(a) agreed to for separate consideration, or
(b) such a term as in the circumstances might naturally be omitted from the writing. 19

20. Partial Integration
Restatement §210 (2) An agreement is not completely integrated if the writing omits a consistent additional agreed term which is
(a) agreed to for separate consideration, or
(b) such a term as in the circumstances might naturally be omitted from the writing.
So oral evidence can “add to” the terms 20

21. Partial Integration: Can’t contradict
Whether completely or partially integrated:
§ 215 Except as stated in the preceding Section, where there is a binding agreement, either completely or partially integrated, evidence of prior or contemporaneous agreements or negotiations is not admissible in evidence to contradict a term of the writing. 21

22. Partial Integration: Can’t contradict
Restatement § 213(1) A binding integrated agreement discharges prior agreements to the extent that it is inconsistent with them.
I.e., can’t “contradict” a completely or partially integrated agreement 22

23. Partial Integration: Can “Add to”
Restatement § 216(1) Evidence of a consistent additional term is admissible to supplement an integrated agreement unless the court finds that the agreement was completely integrated. 23

24. Can we look behind a signed written contract for the terms of the contract?
So the traditional Parol Evidence Rule survives for completely integrated agreements but only in part (can’t contradict) for partly integrated agreements

25. Parol Evidence: Restatement §§ 209 ff.
Completely integrated agreements:
Four corners rule: can’t add to
Partially integrated agreements
Can’t contradict
Non-integrated agreements
Anything goes 25

26. Limits to the Parol Evidence Rule
A agrees to sell his house to B in a signed agreement on Feb. 20.
On the same day A sells a painting to B for $400 in an oral agreement.
Can the oral agreement be enforced?

27. Collateral Contracts
A agrees to sell his house to B in a signed agreement on Feb. 20. On the same day B sells a painting to A for $400 in an oral agreement. Problems?
“Two entirely distinct contracts … may be made at the same time, and will be distinct legally.” Williston at 543

28. Collateral Contracts
Restatement §213(2) A binding completely integrated agreement discharges prior agreements to the extent that they are within its scope.

29. Collateral Agreements
The test in Mitchill v. Lath 542
Ice House

30. Alexandria, Payne and Commerce Street

31. Collateral Agreements
How is this like my example
of the painting? 31

32. Collateral Agreements
What is the test of a collateral agreement? 32

33. Collateral Agreements
The test in Mitchill v. Lath
In form a collateral agreement 33

34. Collateral Agreements
The test in Mitchill v. Lath
In form a collateral agreement
Can’t contradict the written agreement 34

35. Collateral Agreements
The test in Mitchill v. Lath
In form a collateral agreement
Can’t contradict the written agreement
The collateral agreement would not ordinarily be embodied in the main agreement 35

36. Collateral Agreements
The test in Mitchill v. Lath
In form a collateral agreement
Can’t contradict the written agreement
One that would not ordinarily be embodied in the writing
Andrews: Πs fail no. 3 and maybe no. 2
And why is that? 36

37. Collateral Agreements
The collateral agreement would not ordinarily be embodied in the main agreement
Restatement §213(2) A binding completely integrated agreement discharges prior agreements to the extent that they are within its scope. 37

38. Collateral Agreements
Restatement § 216(2) An agreement is not
completely integrated if the writing
omits a consistent additional agreed term
which is
(a) agreed to for separate consideration, or
(b) such a term as in the circumstances
might naturally be omitted from the writing. 38

39. Collateral Agreements
Would the ice house covenant ordinarily or naturally be found in the land sale contract?
Judge William Andrews
Chief Judge Irving Lehman 39

40. Collateral Agreements
What about a parol warranty on a sale, per Andrews? 40

41. Is this an Integrated Agreement?
Restatement §209(3) Where the parties reduce an agreement to a writing which in view of its completeness and specificity reasonably appears to be a complete agreement, it is taken to be an integrated agreement unless it is established by other evidence that the writing did not constitute a final expression. 41

42. And even if it is Integrated?
Restatement §209(3) Where the parties reduce an agreement to a writing which in view of its completeness and specificity reasonably appears to be a complete agreement, it is taken to be an integrated agreement unless it is established by other evidence that the writing did not constitute a final expression. 42

43. Masterson v. Sine 546 Escola v. Coca-Cola Jones v. Ahmanson
Pacific Gas infra
Chief Justice Roger Traynor

44. Masterson v. Sine
Chief Justice Roger Traynor
Justice Louis H. Burke

45. Masterson
What was the contract? 45

46. Masterson
Dallas Medora
Sale
Option to repurchase 46

47. Masterson Dallas Medora What was the oral modification? Sale
Option to repurchase 47

48. Masterson What was the oral modification?
Dallas reserves an option to repurchase which does not convey to his assigns (i.e., trustee in bankruptcy) 48

49. Masterson
What happens if an agreement is fully integrated per Traynor? 49

50. Masterson
What happens if an agreement is fully integrated per Traynor?
Parol evidence can’t be admitted to add to or vary terms 50

51. Masterson
How to tell if a writing is completely or partially integrated per Traynor? 51

52. Masterson
How to tell if a writing is completely or partially integrated per Traynor?
“Any such collateral agreement must itself be examined…”? 52

53. Masterson
How to tell if a writing is completely or partially integrated per Traynor?
So can a court ever restrict itself to the writing?
Or was this about the absence of a merger clause? Or not? 53

54. Masterson What was the oral modification?
How to tell if a writing is completely or partially integrated per Traynor?
“The conception of a writing as wholly and intrinsically self-determinative… is impossible”: Wigmore 54

55. Masterson
What does it means to say that the Parol Evidence Rule is a rule of substantive law and not of evidence? P. 549 55

56. Masterson Are Burke’s charges correct?
The change contradicts a term which would ordinarily be supplied by operation of law. 56

57. Masterson Are Burke’s charges correct?
The change contradicts a term which would ordinarily be supplied by operation of law.
A fraudulent conveyance? 57

58. George Mason School of Law
Contracts II
Terms
© F.H. Buckley
Not for sharing

59. Masterson
How to tell if a writing is completely or partially integrated per Traynor?
“Any such collateral agreement must itself be examined…”? 59

60. How does the Restatement handle this?
Which way does the Restatement come down? Traynor or Burke?

61. How does the Restatement handle this?
§214. Agreements and negotiations prior to or contemporaneous with the adoption of a writing are admissible in evidence to establish
(a) that the writing is or is not an integrated agreement;
(b) that the integrated agreement, if any, is completely or partially integrated;
(c) the meaning of the writing, whether or not integrated;
(d) illegality, fraud, duress, mistake, lack of consideration, or other invalidating cause;
(e) ground for granting or denying rescission, reformation, specific performance...

62. How does the Restatement handle this?
Which way does the Restatement come down? Traynor or Burke?
Cf. § 210(3) comment: “a writing cannot prove its own completeness”
If not, can one always introduce parol evidence?

63. How does UCC 2-202 handle this?
Terms with respect to which the confirmatory memoranda of the parties agree or which are otherwise set forth in a writing intended by the parties as a final expression of their agreement with respect to such terms as are included therein may not be contradicted by evidence of any prior agreement or of a contemporaneous oral agreement but may be explained or supplemented
(a) by course of dealing or usage of trade or by course of performance; and
(b) by evidence of consistent additional terms unless the court finds the writing to have been intended also as a complete and exclusive statement of the terms of the agreement.

64. How does UCC 2-202 handle this?
Comment 3: Admit oral evidence unless it would “certainly” have been included in the writing

65. Compare to the common law standard
Admit parol evidence if the terms would “naturally be made as a separate agreement”: Restatement 216
UCC is more ready to admit parol evidence: Admit unless the terms would “certainly have been included in the agreement” 65

66. What can be excluded as parol evidence
Terms that would naturally be in a separate agreement: Restatement
Terms that would certainly be in a separate agreement: UCC 66

67. How does UCC 2-202 handle this?
What happened in Hunt Foods 562

68. How does UCC 2-202 handle this?
What happened in Hunt Foods 562
How was this an Article 2 transaction?

69. How does UCC 2-202 handle this?
What happened in Hunt Foods 557
George Doniler
Asset purchase agreement
Hunt Foods
73%
Eastern Can

70. How does UCC 2-202 handle this?
What happened in Hunt Foods 557
George Doniler
Option to
purchase stock
Hunt Foods
73%
Eastern Can

71. How does UCC 2-202 handle this?
Hunt Foods
What was the allegedly omitted term?

72. How does UCC 2-202 handle this?
Hunt Foods
What was the allegedly omitted term?
Option to be exercised only if Doliners shopped around

73. How does UCC 2-202 handle this?
Hunt Foods
What was the allegedly omitted term?
Did Hunt admit it had conceded the oral term?
And why might Hunt have rejected this?

74. How does UCC 2-202 handle this?
Hunt Foods
How did the court interpret UCC 2-202?

75. How does UCC 2-202 handle this?
Hunt Foods
What was the allegedly omitted term?
“It is not sufficient that the existence of the [oral] condition is implausible. It must be impossible.”

76. How does UCC 2-202 handle this?
Hunt Foods
Were these sophisticated parties?

77. Can the impossibility standard be met?
Snyder 565
What was the alleged omitted term?
Twin Lakes Garden Apartments
Beltsville MD

78. Can the impossibility standard be met?
Snyder
Is a cancellation clause inconsistent with the written contract?
Why might Greenbaum have wanted to exclude unilateral exit rights? 78

79. Can the impossibility standard be met?
Snyder
Is a cancellation clause inconsistent with the written contract?
Why was the Hunt Foods reasoning rejected? 79

80. Can the impossibility standard be met?
Snyder
Is a cancellation clause inconsistent with the written contract?
The court’s standard: “an absence of reasonable harmony” 80

81. Can one bargain around this?
Traynor at 547:
“The instrument itself may help resolve the issue” 81

82. Can one bargain around this?
Traynor at 547:
“The instrument itself may help resolve the issue”
But “Any such [oral] collateral agreement itself must be examined … to determine whether the parties intended [it] to be included” 82

83. Can one bargain around this?
Traynor at 547:
Are we running into a rule of paternalism here? 83

84. Can one bargain around this?
Traynor at 547:
Should the parties be permitted to bargain back into the parol evidence rule? 84

85. Can one bargain around this?
Traynor at 551:
Should the parties be permitted to bargain back into the parol evidence rule?
And just how would they do this? 85

86. Can one bargain around this?
Traynor at 551:
Should the parties be permitted to bargain back into the parol evidence rule?
And just how would they do this?
Cf Eisenberg and Miller at 566 86

87. Can one bargain around this?
Traynor at 551:
Should the parties be permitted to bargain back into the parol evidence rule?
And just how would they do this?
Merger Clauses? 87

88. Merger Clauses: UAW at 553
Doral Resort and Country Club, Miami

89. Merger Clauses: UAW
How was the merger clause phrased?

90. Merger Clauses: UAW How was the merger clause phrased?
What was the alleged omitted term?

91. Merger Clauses: UAW
Roush’s evidence

92. Merger Clauses: UAW
Markman: Can the parties bargain around the “threshold question” of whether a contract is completely integrated with a merger clause?

93. Merger Clauses: UAW
Markman: Can the parties bargain around the “threshold question” of whether a contract is completely integrated with a merger clause?
What was the source of the “unfairness” to the successor corporation?

94. Merger Clauses: UAW
Can you think of something the UAW could have done to satisfy its concerns?

95. Merger Clauses: UAW
Can you think of something the UAW could have done to satisfy its concerns?
Markman: The Parol Evidence Rule gives the parties the incentive to cure the problem in the express contract

96. Merger Clauses: UAW
What was the allegation of fraud?

97. Merger Clauses: UAW What was the allegation of fraud?
Did Carol Management falsely represent that the union clause was in the contract?
Or that there was no merger clause?

98. Merger Clauses: UAW
What was the allegation of fraud?
Did Carol Management falsely represent that the union clause was in the contract?
Or that there was no merger clause?
Keeping mum about plans for sale of the hotel?

99. UAW
On Holbrook’s analysis, what does a merger clause do?

100. UAW On Holbrook’s analysis, what does a merger clause do?
Cf. Restatement § 216, cmt e: Merger clauses are not controlling

101. Merger Clauses: UAW
Recall Danann on merger clauses and fraud at 428
A Danann clause negatives reliance on an representation

102. UAW
Does a merger clause always work?
Why not in Seibel at 561

103. UAW
How would Markman have decided Hachmeister at p. 557?

104. So when can parol evidence be introduced?

105. So when can parol evidence be introduced?
Always, it the PER is simply a rule of evidence
Traynor

106. So when can parol evidence be introduced?
When the added term would certainly not have been included in the writing: UCC 2-202

107. So when can parol evidence be introduced?
When the added term would not naturally have been included in the writing: Restatement 216

108. So when can parol evidence be introduced?
When the agreement is tainted by fraud as to its execution or to the presence of a merger clause
Unless there is a Danann clause?
Restatement 214(d): Illegality, fraud, duress, mistake

109. So when can parol evidence be introduced?
Oral conditions: Restatement 217
E.g., this agreement is not operative if…