Lack of Formal Executed Contract Haunts Promissory Estoppel Analysis

This recent case out of the Western District of Pennsylvania, Landan v. Wal-Mart Real Estate Business Trust, 2:12cv926 (behind paywall), is sort of a try-try-again case, although the “try again” part has as negative an outcome for the plaintiffs as the “try” part did. The plaintiffs’ breach of contract claim had already failed here because the court found there was no oral agreement between the parties and the parties’ signed letter of intent indicated that the parties did not wish to be bound until a final formal contract was executed (as never happened).

In the face of the failure of their breach of contract claim, the plaintiffs turn here to promissory estoppel. But the lack of a final formal contract haunts the promissory estoppel analysis, too. The court finds the plaintiffs were unable to explain what promises had been made to them and characterizes the plaintiffs’ stance as “unclear, inconsistent, constantly shifting, and ultimately unavailing.” Given the confusion about the statements at issue, the court concludes that any reliance on such vague statements on the plaintiffs’ part was unreasonable. A lot of the courts’ characterization of the statements and the reasonableness, though, seem to revolve around the fact that the parties never reached a final formal contract: It would be hard for the plaintiffs to allege definite promises, the court says, because the parties were negotiating and hadn’t entered into a formal deal yet; maybe Wal-Mart did make some statements but, the court says, in the context of the ongoing negotiations it would have been unreasonable for the plaintiffs to rely on those statements. 

Granted, there seem to definitely be issues with the plaintiffs’ promissory estoppel claim here. The court points out that the plaintiffs themselves behaved sometimes as if they did not understand Wal-Mart to be making any promises to them, apparently negotiating with other parties over the same piece of land because of their skepticism about the Wal-Mart deal going through. And there was the letter of intent between the parties that did seem to make it less reasonable that the plaintiffs would rely on indefinite negotiating statements that hadn’t been reduced to writing the way others of the statements had been. But it also seems like, once the court decided that the letter of intent wasn’t binding because it contemplated a subsequent agreement, the plaintiffs’ promissory estoppel claim was likewise doomed. Without a formal executed agreement, there was nothing for the plaintiffs to do to save their claim.