Published on:

By

When a commercial tenant feels that it cannot timely pay its full rent obligation, this potentially creates issues for both the tenant and the landlord. A landlord can begin taking action or can allow the tenant to pay late and/or pay less than the full rent. Both landlords and tenants need to know that, when the latter happens, that step potentially triggers certain legal ramifications, such as the waiver of terms and/or the creation of a “quasi-new agreement.” As a Georgia commercial landlord, you should make sure you’re consulting with a knowledgeable Atlanta commercial leasing lawyer before you acquiesce to nonpayment, late payment, or partial payment of rent.

The Georgia Court of Appeals addressed that issue last year. In that circumstance, the contract was a commercial sublease agreement in Atlanta. The subtenants, two law firms, allegedly fell behind in paying rent, so the sublessor, an insurance company, eventually took them to court.

The sublessor won in the trial court. The trial judge granted summary judgment in its favor on its claims, as well as all of the subtenants’ counterclaims. The insurance company had a problem, though, and the subtenants used it to score a success in their appeal.

Continue reading →

Published on:

By

A recent ruling from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals (whose decisions directly control federal cases in Georgia, Florida, and Alabama,) is a reminder that even the most seemingly perfunctory parts of an agreement, up to and including the definitions contained in the contract, can be crucial. Whether you’re negotiating a commercial agreement or seeking to enforce one that you already executed, an experienced Atlanta commercial contracts lawyer can help you ensure that your business interests are protected to the fullest.

In that recent 11th Circuit breach of contract case, the agreement involved two insurance entities. Although many insurance contract disputes involve issues specific to insurance law, the issues that were front-and-center in this case were ones common to most contractual relationships (and contract law.) Chiefly, the issue of ambiguity versus “plain meaning.”

One entity, a Florida-based company, provided insurance to local governments in that state. The insurance company had a contract with a New Jersey-based reinsurer where the latter promised to reimburse the former for certain claims occurring during the coverage period. (A “reinsurer” is an insurance entity that offers financial protection/coverage to other insurance companies.)

Continue reading →

Published on:

By

Non-lawyers often associate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act with mobsters and gangs. RICO’s reach spans far beyond that, though. The statute allows for civil actions, making a federal RICO claim a potentially powerful weapon in a business dispute. Pleading requirements for federal civil RICO are complex, however, creating many traps for the inexperienced. If you or your company is on the receiving end of one of these weaponized RICO claims, get in touch with a knowledgeable Atlanta civil RICO lawyer, who can review your case, and perhaps dispatch that RICO claim before a trial even begins.

Some years ago, the federal First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston described civil RICO claims as “the litigation equivalent of a thermonuclear device.” That’s partly because civil RICO claims offer plaintiffs the potential of recovering large sums via the treble (in other words, triple) damages. Sometimes, these claims are a means to an end, such hopefully forcing a defendant to agree to a settlement.

As a pair of recent cases illustrate, there are numerous ways a plaintiff’s federal civil RICO claim can fail. In a Missouri federal court, a bank accused the heirs of a famous 20th Century American painter of violating the RICO law. The judge noted a glaring weakness in the bank’s case, which dealt with the required “pattern of racketeering activity,” according to NPR in Kansas City.

Continue reading →

Published on:

By

When it becomes necessary to sue a supplier, a distributor, a designer, or another commercial contract partner, you probably have some general expectations. This includes facing vigorous opposition. So, you may wonder, what do you do if the entity you sued simply does… nothing? Fortunately, the law has a process for that but, like all other civil litigation procedures, it is vitally important you complete every step correctly. To that end, even when yours is a lawsuit in which the defendant is not participating, it is still extremely valuable to have a knowledgeable Atlanta commercial contracts lawyer on your side.

A contract dispute from here in Atlanta shows what we mean. An architectural designer, as part of its work erecting a canopy system at the Atlanta international airport, inked a deal with a supplier to purchase steel and other materials.

The supplier allegedly shipped non-conforming materials and also failed to pay all of its own suppliers and subcontractors as required by the agreement. Based on those breaches, the designer terminated the agreement and later sued.

Continue reading →

Published on:

By

Sometimes, what you need from your commercial contract litigation action is an appropriate sum of money damages to compensate you for the harm you suffered before and during the litigation. Sometimes, though, no amount of money can compensate you for the harm someone’s misconduct is causing. When that happens, there’s another option for relief. It’s called a preliminary injunction and, if you need one, a skillful Atlanta commercial contracts lawyer can help you obtain that sort of court order.

Many times, a party seeks a preliminary injunction to get the court to order another party to stop doing something. Other times, though, what you need is a court order directing a party to do something. That was the challenge facing a Columbus-based home builder recently.

The builder had inked a land purchase agreement to obtain “residential building lots” from a husband, his wife, and several corporate entities associated with the couple. That contract contained a specific schedule for the provision of 1,600 lots.

Continue reading →

Published on:

By

When you’re negotiating a commercial contract, there are many things on which you may be focusing during that process. Most of them will probably relate to aspects of what will transpire during the life of the arrangement. What’s essential not to overlook, though, is also getting the best “out” options possible. A good termination clause in your agreement can be vital in allowing you to escape a bad deal without potentially running into breach-of-contract issues. A knowledgeable Atlanta commercial contracts lawyer can help you as you negotiate that deal, and then defend the terms of the contract you signed.

A supplier agreement case from here in north Georgia shows a practical example of this in action. The parties were a large nationwide chain of high-end grocery stores and a small Norcross-based Greek yogurt manufacturer.

Six and one-half years after the sides negotiated and executed their supplier agreement, the manufacturer received a letter from the grocery terminating the contract immediately. The letter did not indicate that the manufacturer had breached the terms of the contract; in fact, it stated no reason at all for the termination. This spurred the manufacturer to go out of business and assign its rights to an asset recovery firm, which sued the grocery.

Continue reading →

Published on:

By

Your business likely includes various elements of highly industry-specific knowledge. That can present a challenge if you encounter a need to bring a breach of contract lawsuit, as one or both sides may require experts to help the court make sense of the technical issues. When that happens, it is essential to ensure that the expert evidence the other side seeks to present meets all the standards the federal rules demand. If they don’t, you may be entitled to throw out that evidence. An experienced Atlanta commercial contract lawyer can help with this and every other vital step when it comes to making your case.

A contract dispute regarding a gas plant in Illinois offers a stark reminder of this truth. The buyer was a St. Louis-based energy company that sought to build a gasification plant (a facility that takes coal and water and produces synthetic natural gas.) The company contracted with another energy company for the purchase of needed equipment, including gasifiers.

Both sides, however, encountered problems. The buyer fell behind on the payments it owed. On the other side, the supplier’s equipment began experiencing problems. Similar gasifiers it sent to a plant in China were having difficulty converting coal into gas.

Continue reading →

Published on:

By

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, shelter-in-place and other “lockdown” orders had many impacts, including impacts on the performance of commercial contracts. Once again, a commercial contract and COVID-19 are together in the news, although this time it has nothing to do with lockdown orders. Nevertheless, this latest development once again makes for a good time to look at the significance of force majeure clauses in commercial contracts, and to remind readers of the vital importance of a skilled Atlanta commercial contracts lawyer when negotiating, drafting, or enforcing a commercial contract and its force majeure clause.

The newest development regarded a manufacturer of one of the COVID-19 vaccines and one of its billion-dollar contracts. Earlier today, the government of Poland announced that it was unilaterally backing out of commitments to buy large quantities of the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine.

The country’s health minister told TVN24 that Poland “used the force majeure clause and informed both the European Commission and the main vaccine producer that we are refusing to take these vaccines at the moment and we are also refusing to pay.” The value of the Polish commitment to buy from Pfizer, which ran through the end of 2023, was $1.4 billion (US).

Continue reading →

Published on:

By

In these challenging economic times, many businesses face substantial struggles. Sometimes, those struggles may lead a business that owes money to yours to fall behind on paying its debts. Of course, your business’ own success is predicated on getting paid the sums that are owed to you, and getting paid on a timely basis. When someone doesn’t, there may be an opportunity to work things out between the two sides. Other times, legal action may be necessary. When the latter is true, look to a knowledgeable Atlanta commercial debt collection lawyer for the legal representation your business needs.

If you’re a lender, dealing with a delinquent borrower can be complicated. There are various steps you can take to deal with the problem. However, if your situation reaches the point where litigation is necessary, you want not only to win your case but also to do so as quickly and efficiently as possible. Doing that may involve bringing — and winning — a motion for summary judgment.

A commercial lending dispute between an Atlanta business intelligence and data analytics company and its lender is a good example. The pair inked a loan agreement in late 2018. On the same day, the borrower submitted two promissory notes to the lender.

Continue reading →

Published on:

By

A recent federal appellate decision could amount to something very important to businesses that may need to pursue, or defendant against, a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act claim. The ruling potentially represents a broadening of what kind of causal linkage is direct enough to meet the causation requirement of a RICO claim, which is important because any broadening of that requirement could make for a boon to those considering pursuing a RICO case. While substantial aspects of RICO law are well-settled, some areas continue to evolve to one degree or another, which is why it always pays to have a truly knowledgeable Atlanta civil RICO lawyer on your side who’s fully up-to-date on all the changes in the law.

The RICO case that spawned the new federal court decision involved the business of high-dollar bankruptcy advice and consulting. After one company (“M”) successfully defeated the other company (“A”) in securing several of these clients, A sued M.

The crux of A’s case was that M was able to beat A for clients, in part, by “knowingly and repeatedly filing disclosure statements in the Bankruptcy Court containing incomplete, misleading, or false representations concerning conflicts of interest” and thereby rigging the process. M also allegedly erected a “pay-to-play” scheme where it arranged meetings between its clients and certain bankruptcy lawyers in exchange for exclusive referrals from those attorneys.

Continue reading →

Contact Information
3562 Habersham at Northlake Building J
Suite 200
Tucker, GA 30084
Phone: 404-373-4008 Fax: 888-709-5723
We serve clients throughout Georgia including those in the following localities: Fulton County including Atlanta; DeKalb County including Decatur and Tucker; Bibb County including Macon; Cherokee County including Canton; Clayton County including Jonesboro; Cobb County including Marietta; Douglas County including Douglasville; Forsyth County including Cumming; Gwinnett County including Lawrenceville; Henry County including McDonough; and Rockdale County including Conyers.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Please do not include any confidential or sensitive information in a contact form, text message, or voicemail. The contact form sends information by non-encrypted email, which is not secure. Submitting a contact form, sending a text message, making a phone call, or leaving a voicemail does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Copyright © 2023, Poole Huffman, LLC
JUSTIA Law Firm Blog Design