MHD-Rockland Inc. v. Aerospace Distributions Inc. (Maryland U.S.D.C.)

Filed:  January 3, 2014

Opinion by Catherine C. Blake

Holdings:  (1) In a transaction between merchants, an acceptance that contains the words “subject to” along with additional terms does not render the acceptance “expressly made conditional on assent to the additional terms” for purposes of Section 2-207(1) of the Commercial Law Article.

(2) In a transaction between merchants, objection to the condition of goods and the return of such goods is not a timely objection of additional terms in an acceptance for purposes of Section 2-207(2) of the Commercial Law Article. 

Facts:  Plaintiff, through use of a purchase order, ordered four airplane wheel assemblies in “overhauled” condition from defendant.  Defendant sent the assemblies and an acknowledgment form representing that the assemblies were in overhauled condition.  The acknowledgment form further stated it was “subject to” the Conditions of Sale printed on the reverse side of the form, which purported to limit liability for consequential damages and disclaim any express or implied warranties.  Plaintiff returned two assemblies allegedly not in overhauled condition, which were therefore defective.  Disagreements arose whether the two returned assemblies were defective. 

Plaintiff alleged, among other claims, breach of contract.  Defendant argued plaintiff should not be allowed to seek lost profits because the contract expressly foreclosed any warranty, including liability for consequential damages.  Plaintiff claimed it rejected the conditions upon return of the assemblies. 

Analysis:  The Court applied Section 2-207 of the Commercial Law Article as the case involved a sale of goods between merchants.  Section 2-207 provides an acceptance containing additional terms is still an acceptance that forms a contract unless the “acceptance is expressly made conditional on assent to the additional or different terms.”  The Court noted that Maryland courts have not decided whether an acceptance “subject to” additional terms amounts to an acceptance “expressly made conditional.”  The Court agreed with cited precedent that concluded the “subject to” language does not make the acceptance expressly conditional on the buyer’s assent to the additional terms.  Accordingly, the Court held that defendant’s acceptance of the purchase order was not expressly made conditional on plaintiff’s assent to the additional terms in the Conditions of Sale.

Section 2-207 further provides that if there is an acceptance, the additional terms become part of the contract between merchants unless: “(a) [t]he offer limits acceptance to the terms of the offer; (b) [t]hey materially alter it; or (c) [n]otification of objection to them has already been given or is given within a reasonable time after notice of them is received.”  The Court noted that the plaintiff did not allege how and when it rejected the additional terms.  The Court stated that plaintiff’s objection to the condition of the assemblies does not amount to a timely objection to the additional terms in the defendant’s acceptance.  The Court dismissed the claim for lost profits from the alleged breach of contract. 

In a lengthy footnote, the Court also discussed an argument that the terms should be excluded from the contract because they materially alter the agreement.  The Court stated that such argument, if raised, would have failed under the applicable Maryland test. 

The full opinion is available in PDF.

Penthouse 4C, LLC v. 100 Harborview Drive Council of Unit Owners (Cir. Ct. Balto. City)

Filed: June 5, 2012.

Opinion by Judge Evelyn Omega Cannon.

Held:   The Circuit Court for Baltimore City held that it had jurisdiction to confirm an arbitration award on a petition filed within 30 days after the arbitrators’ decision on a motion to modify the award, that the arbitrators did not exceed their jurisdiction in awarding the Plaintiff LLC the amount of costs of living and relocation expenses of the LLC’s sole member who was not a party to the arbitration, and that the award would not be vacated for manifest disregard of the law because the Defendant could not show that the arbitrators disregarded the law after understanding and correctly stating it. Finally, the Circuit Court refused to modify the specific performance part of the award based on Defendant’s evidence presented to the Court but not to the arbitrators.      

Facts: On March 9, 2010, the Plaintiff LLC, whose sole member was the primary resident of a condominium managed by the Defendant condominium council and directors, sued for specific performance and damages alleging that that the Defendant’s failure to perform required maintenance caused water exposure damage (mold) in the Plaintiff LLC’s condominium unit. The Plaintiff LLC’s sole member, an individual residing in the unit, was not individually named as a party to the suit.

The Circuit Court granted the Defendant’s motion to stay pending arbitration and after five days of hearings, on November 28, 2011 a majority of the three retired judges serving as arbitrators awarded the Plaintiff $1,252,487 in damages, including $433,722 for the sole member’s consequential costs, and ordered the Defendant to perform the required maintenance.

The Plaintiff filed a petition to confirm the award in the Circuit Court.   A day later the Defendant filed with the arbitrators a motion to modify the award as to what all agreed was an inadvertent mistake. On December 28, 2011 the majority panel issued its modification of the award, in part. On January 23, 2012 the Defendant filed in the Circuit Court a Petition to Vacate the Monetary Award and to Modify the Award’s order of specific performance.

Analysis:   The Circuit Court first addressed the Plaintiff’s claim that the Petition to Vacate was not timely filed. Relying on Mandl v. Bailey, 159 Md. App. 64 (2004),  the Circuit Court found that an arbitration award, although final and complete when issued, is rendered incomplete and no longer final when a motion is timely filed with the arbitrator to modify the award, therefore tolling the 30 day period in which a petition to vacate the award can be filed with the Court. In accordance with Mandl,  the Court found the Petition to Vacate was timely because filed within 30 days of delivery of the corrected award.

The Circuit Court next addressed whether the arbitrator panel exceeded its jurisdiction when making a $433,722 award to the Plaintiff LLC for consequential costs of the LLC’s sole member. The Court found that the Defendant participated in the arbitration without objection about jurisdiction or the appropriateness of a consequential costs award to the Plaintiff LLC’s sole member. The Circuit Court further found that the arbitration panel explicitly made the award to the Plaintiff LLC and not to the LLC’s sole member, therefore no jurisdictional issues were present.  

Next, the Circuit Court addressed the Defendant’s claim that the award for the consequential costs was “completely irrational” and a “manifest disregard of the law.” Although “manifest disregard of the law” is not stated as grounds to vacate an award in the Federal Arbitration Act or the Maryland Uniform Arbitration Act, the Court followed Sharp v. Downey, 197 Md. App. 123 cert. granted, 419 Md. 646 (2011) in applying the doctrine under principles of stare decisis. Reviewing authorities, the Circuit Court found that the “manifest disregard” standard requires some showing in the record, other than the obtained result, that the arbitrators knew the law and consciously disregarded it. The Circuit Court found that the Defendant never presented an issue to the arbitrators as to an award of the amount of the LLC’s sole member’s consequential costs and the arbitrators never provided any explanation for the award. In light of the Defendant’s silence, the award could not be “completely irrational” and the Defendant’s failure to refer the arbitrators to any law on consequential damages was fatal to the requirement of the “manifest disregard of the law” doctrine that the record show that the arbitrators were aware of the law and disregarded it.

Finally, the Defendant sought three modifications to the specific performance portion of the award: 1) incorporation of two Project Manuals that were not introduced into evidence, 2) allowing the Defendant to perform a peer-review of the Project Manuals, and 3) allowing value-engineering of the Project Manuals. Because the Project Manuals were not presented into evidence before the arbitrators, the Circuit Court could not conclude whether the proposed modifications would affect the award. Defendant also was silent during the arbitration hearing about peer-reviewing and value-engineering. Consequently, the Circuit Court denied the Defendant’s Petition to Vacate or Modify the Award and granted Plaintiff’s Petition to Confirm the Award.

The full opinion is available in PDF.

CR-RSC Tower I, LLC v. RSC Tower I, LLC (Ct. of Appeals)

Filed: November 27, 2012
Opinion by Judge Sally D. Adkins

Held: Where two parties enter into a contract for the lease and development of real estate and one party subsequently breaches that contract, evidence of post-breach market conditions is not admissible to prove lost profits if the parties did not contemplate the market conditions when they contracted.

Facts: Landlord entered into two 90-year ground leases with Tenant, a "successful real estate company," related to a tract of land in Maryland, consisting of two adjoining properties. Under the ground leases, Tenant agreed to construct two apartment buildings that it would sell after construction and initial rental. After temporary modifications, the parties reverted to their original plan to build two apartments and arranged financing for the first building. However, as construction began, Landlord failed to provide estoppel certificates and, as a result, financing fell through. In November 2006, Tenant sued for breach of contract, seeking recovery of lost profits. 

Tenant based its claim on market projections as of December 2006, the time of the initial breach. Landlord contended that, because in 2006 the apartments weren't projected to be fully leased until 2010 and 2012, the actual market conditions in 2010 and 2012 were relevant. Landlord sought to show that under the conditions of the current market, Tenant would not have profited regardless of whether there was a breach. Landlord offered expert testimony about the real estate market crisis in 2008–2010, a time when “the world . . . changed” and “the cataclysmic events of 2008 in the economy” took place. 

The trial court ruled against Landlord on several motions, including, among other things, that Landlord could not introduce evidence of the 2008 crash in the real estate market to show that Tenant would not have made profits.

The jury found for Tenant, awarding it over 36 million dollars in collateral damages. Landlord appealed, alleging that the trial court erred in not admitting evidence of “post-breach market conditions.” It argued that such evidence is a necessary part of any lost profits claim and that, without it, a plaintiff cannot meet the requirement that lost profits be proved with “reasonable certainty.” 

The Court of Special Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision, citing the “general principle” that contract damages are measured at the time of breach.

Analysis: The Court engaged in a lengthy discussion of measuring lost profits and reliance  damages. The Court determined that “consequential lost profits are calculated with reference to what the parties can reasonably be said to have anticipated when they entered into the contract.” The Court explained that, for this reason, “circumstances that cannot be said to have been ‘known to the parties’ when they contracted—such as a post-breach boom or bust in the market—should not affect the measure of consequential damages that would ‘ordinarily arise’ according to the ‘intrinsic nature of the contract.’” 

The Court explained, although many contracts are made with the possibility of future market downturns and, accordingly, allocate such risk between the parties, the contract in this case did not. Under this contract, the success of both parties depended on a relatively stable market and it could not be said that a subsequent, unforeseen, “cataclysmic”  market crash was within the parties’ contemplation.  Thus, the Court held that the trial court did not err in excluding evidence of post-breach market conditions.

The Court went on to discuss separate issues raised by Landlord regarding waiver of the attorney client privilege and joint and several liability.

The full opinion is available in PDF.