Regardless of what unfounded promises and misrepresentations are made by insurance companies and their agents about the scope or type of coverage purchased, an insured may well be able to use the principles of waiver or estoppel to hold an insurance company to its promises. This may be the case…
What are we talking about when we talk about parol evidence in breach of contract cases? Assume A and B have a written contract. A sues B for not fulfilling its obligations. The case of A v. B goes to trial. Any evidence at trial about the negotiations, discussions or…
Most business people I know are too busy to read their insurance policies. So, they rely on their insurance agents to make sure that they buy the kind of insurance coverage which they need. Insurance agents and insurance companies are quite capable of miscommunicating and making mistakes. So, sometimes, insureds…
The “first material breach” rule has become an almost knee jerk response as a defense in breach of contract cases. Under that rule, a party who commits a material breach of a contract cannot recover damages from the other party for the other party’s later material breach of the same…
Tennessee follows the “American Rule” which holds that the losing party in a lawsuit is not required to pay the attorney’s fees of the wining party. There are exceptions to the American Rule which come up quite often in Tennessee cases. First, if a statute provides that the prevailing party…
Even for experienced breach of contract lawyers, applying Tennessee law regarding the amount and types of damages a plaintiff may be awarded in a breach of contract case, in many cases, is not so simple. In analyzing the potential damages that might be awarded in any Tennessee breach of contract…
In a breach of contract case involving a subcontractor’s claim against a general contractor, Skelton v. Freese Const. Co., Inc., the Court of Appeals of Tennessee recently ruled that the general contractor did not waive its right to require that the case be arbitrated, and reversed the trial court on…
Parties in negotiations sometimes make offers and counter-offers, but do not specify by when their offers must be accepted by the other party. When that happens, one party might accept an outstanding offer and then be told by the other party that the acceptance was too late to be effective.…
In 2000, Tennessee adopted the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (“UTSA”). The UTSA aims to protect trade secrets of businesses and individuals from misappropriation, theft, and misuse. In order to prove someone is liable under the UTSA, a plaintiff must establish that its information which was misappropriated was a “trade secret.”…
The law of undue influence in Tennessee can be quite a bit to try to get one’s head around considering the numerous different factual situations in which undue influence cases arise and considering the numerous “suspicious circumstances” that Tennessee courts have instructed judges and juries to use in making their…