The Best is the Enemy of the Reasonable

What’s the difference between a clause requiring “best endeavours” and one requiring “reasonable endeavours”? And, for that matter, one requiring “all reasonable endeavours”? In a decision last year, Rhodia International Holdings v. Huntsman International LLC, [2007] EWHC 292 (Comm), the U.K. High Court took a whack at sorting them out.  A duty to use “reasonable endeavours,” said the court, can be met by exhausting only one of a number of possible solutions, while a duty to use “best endeavours” requires the party to exhause all possible courses of action.

In a recent memo, Use Of Best And Reasonable Endeavours In Contracts, solicitor Sian Forbes of Bristol’s Bevan Brittan LLP offers an analysis of the decision.

[Frank Snyder]