More Idiosyncrasies of the Common Law of Contract You Need to Know
A contract with an express end date means what it says, writes Glenn D. West for the Global Private Equity Watch of Weil, Gotshal & Manges.
“The end date for a contract without an express end date, or one that purports to continue indefinitely, or even forever, may in fact be subject to early termination, or have an implied end date, depending on the particular approach of the courts of the state governing that particular contract,” he adds.
He discusses a recent Minnesota Supreme Court decision, Glacial Plains Cooperative v. Chippewa Valley Ethanol Co., LLLP, in which the court held that a long-term agreement to supply grain to an ethanol plant, which did not otherwise contain an end date, did “not unambiguously express an intent to form a contract of perpetual duration, and [was] thus a contract of indefinite duration [that] . . . is terminable at will upon reasonable notice once a reasonable time has passed.”
