VLM Food Trading International, Inc.

Federal 7th Circuit Court
Civil Court
Contracts
Citation
Case Number: 
No. 14-2776
Decision Date: 
January 21, 2016
Federal District: 
N.D. Ill., E. Div.
Holding: 
Affirmed

Dist. Ct. did not err in finding that attorney’s fee provision in plaintiff’s trailing invoices was not part of parties’ contracts to purchase frozen potatoes after Dist. Ct. applied terms of United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (Convention). Under terms of Convention, attorney’s fees provision was not part of instant contracts, where: (1) “loss” resulting from breach of contract did not itself include attorney’s fees; (2) instant contracts were formed at moment plaintiff accepted defendant’s offer to purchase potatoes at specified price; and (3) attorney’s fees provision was not included in defendant’s purchase order or in plaintiff’s email confirmation and only appeared in trailing invoices sent to defendant after plaintiff’s delivery of potatoes. Plaintiff also failed to show that defendant had ever made statement indicating its acceptance of attorney’s fee provision.