Contracts

Disney entered into a contract with Gilkyson for him to compose the song "The Bare Necessities."  The contract provided that the song would be a work-for-hire to which Disney would own the copyright.  Disney was to pay Gilkyson $1,000 up front, plus 5 cents for each sheet music copy sold and "50% of the net amount received by our music… Read More

The nature of the right sued upon and not the form of action nor the relief demanded determines the applicability of the statute of limitations.  So, in this case where plaintiff alleged that the seller's disclosures regarding real property sold to plaintiff were inaccurate or incomplete, the action was governed by the 3-year limitations period for fraud even though the… Read More

Plaintiff's subcontract with defendant, the prime contractor, incorporated by reference the 151-page prime contract between defendant and the owner.  The prime contract contained an arbitration clause.  The subcontract did not.  This decision affirms an order denying arbitration.  The incorporation of the prime contract was in a clause referring only to the subcontractor's assuming the prime contractor's obligations to the owner. … Read More

Civ. Code 3287(b) gives the trial judge broad discretionary power to award prejudgment interest in contract cases even when the damages are not certain or capable of being made certain.  Uncertainty of damages alone would not be a proper reason to deny discretionary prejudgment interest under section 3287(b), but here, the trial judge also relied on the fact that the… Read More

Oracle breached its contract with HP by announcing that its next product releases would not be compatible with HP's Itanium computers.  Following the first phase of trial in this case, the trial court concluded that the parties' contract required Oracle to offer Itanium-compatible versions of its product releases.  Oracle then announced that it would release Itanium-compatible versions, but also announced… Read More

Having agreed to maintain its strategic relationship with HP and support of their shared customer base, by continuing to offer its product suite on HP platforms, Oracle six months later announced that its next product releases would not be available for HP computers.  This decision holds that the announcement was a present breach of the parties' agreement, not an anticipatory… Read More

To settle disputes that arose from Oracle's hiring HP's former CEO, the two signed a settlement agreement containing a "reaffirmation" clause that  stating each company’s commitment to their strategic relationship and support of their shared customer base, and that Oracle "“will continue to offer its product suite on HP platforms.”  This lengthy opinion holds that the quoted words committed Oracle… Read More

This decision contains a lengthy discussion of requirements contracts and how they should be interpreted.  The only appealed issue was the amount of damages that plaintiff should recover for the defendant's breach of the contract.  The trial court had limited damages to a three month period before trial; whereas, the plaintiff sought damages for the entire period after the defendant… Read More

Plaintiff hired E to sell its cyptocurrency assets for cash.  E did so using defendant's website.  The proceeds of sale were stolen from the website allegedly because defendant failed to implement elemental security measures.  This decision holds that the trial court did not err in denying defendant's motion to compel arbitration based on its terms of service to which E… Read More

The trial court did not err in enforcing decedent's contract with defendant under which defendant was to liquidate decedent's Iranian properties and transfer the proceeds to decedent.  Although the contract violated the federal sanctions imposed on Iran, the trial court did not abuse its discretion in awarding the plaintiff heirs relief since (a) the sales of the Iranian properties were… Read More