Category Archives: Ambiguity

In its recent opinion in In re C.P.Y. (copy here), the Texas Court of Appeals had occasion to consider the phrase “full-time basis,” and it concluded that it’s ambiguous. Youst (the husband) was required to pay Wells (the wife) alimony …

Continue Reading »

On December 1, 2007, AVAX Technologies and one Francois Martelet entered into an employment agreement providing for Martelet to serve as AVAX’s CEO. It all ended in litigation, and recently the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued this …

Continue Reading »

In an opinion issued this week (here) the U.S. Supreme Court considered the alternative possible meanings of “not an.” Here’s the relevant passage: Truth be told, the answer to the general question “What does ‘not an’ mean?” is “It depends”: …

Continue Reading »

In this December 2011 post I wrote about a contract dispute caused by uncertainty over what the phrase “said cost” referred to. On further reflection, I realized that we were dealing with a kind of ambiguity that I hadn’t written …

Continue Reading »

The following language was at issue in a recent case before the Appellate Court of Connecticut, Loso v. Loso, 132 Conn. App. 257 (2011): The defendant agrees to pay for one-half the cost of Sarah’s college educational expenses for a four …

Continue Reading »

Business Law Today, the online magazine of the Section of Business Law of the ABA, has published my new article Making a Mess of Ambiguity: Lessons from the Third Circuit’s Opinion in Meyer v. CUNA Mutual Insurance Society. It explores, in …

Continue Reading »

When someone wants to discuss my giving expert testimony in a dispute over the meaning of part of a contract, it’s a safe bet that the confusion over meaning will involve one or other (or both) of the following kinds …

Continue Reading »

Syntactic ambiguity is ambiguity that arises due to uncertainty regarding which part of a phrase a given word modifies, or which part of a sentence a given phrase modifies. Syntactic ambiguity can arise in any kind of writing, and examples …

Continue Reading »

The opinion just issued by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in Anderson v. Hess Corporation (go here for a PDF copy) primarily concerns the phrase “drilling or reworking operations”. It occurs several times in the five mineral leases at …

Continue Reading »

In its recent opinion in Mosser Construction, Inc. v. Travelers Indemnity Co. (go here for a PDF copy), the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals devotes several pages to the meaning of “subcontractor” for purposes of an insurance policy. Why? Because …

Continue Reading »

When I’m overcome with the urge to consider use of and/or in legal writing, I now know where to go: to this post on Slaw by Ted Tjaden, national director of knowledge management at the Canadian law firm McMillan. I …

Continue Reading »

It’s pretty easy to find instances of a court offering a shaky analysis of ambiguity. I recently submitted to a periodical an article about a head-scratching instance of such misdiagnosis—let’s see if it’s accepted. In the interim, you might want …

Continue Reading »

A recent opinion of the Court of Appeals of New Mexico, Sabatini v. Roybal (PDF copy here), caught my attention. It reminded me how tricky it can be to distinguish between the sources of uncertainty in contract language. The phrase at …

Continue Reading »

I recently learned of a Wisconsin appellate case, Appleton Papers, Inc. v. Andritz, Inc., 2011 WL 867754 (Wis. Ct. App.) It provides an interesting example of the confusion that can follow if you misdiagnose the sources of uncertainty in contract …

Continue Reading »

Thanks to reader Steven Sholk, I learned about the recent Ninth Circuit opinion in Richey v. Metaxpert LLC. (Click here to go to a PDF copy.) Before Richey started working for the appellants, in 2007 he signed an employment contract in …

Continue Reading »

Via this post on the Delaware Corporate and Commercial Litigation Blog I learned of an opinion that the Delaware Court of Chancery issued last month. The case is Ion Geophysical Corp. v. Fletcher International, Ltd., C.A. No. 5050-VCP; go here for …

Continue Reading »

The ABA Journal contains this item about how Florida police are weighing possible charges against a St. Petersburg man whose motorized wheelchair collided with a scooter, killing the other driver. Apparently, the charges could range from jaywalking to reckless driving, depending …

Continue Reading »