Resolving Ambiguities
This chapter examines how fact-finders may resolve a relevant ambiguity in a contract lawfully, thereby giving a term or the contract a meaning. It considers the roles of judges and juries and the allowable elements of contract interpretation. It illustrates how to use the elements when presenting evidence or making interpretive arguments. The elements considered include a contract term's text and its context. The context, in turn, includes the contract document as a whole, the circumstances under which it was made, any relevant trade usages, any practical construction, a party's testimony about its intention, statements of intention during negotiations, the course of negotiations, and any prior course of dealing.
Keywords: resolving ambiguity, meaning, contract term, contract context, interpretive arguments
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