An ambiguity decision

A recent case out of Texas, Bitter Creek Water Supply Corp. v. Sims, No. 11-17-00080-CV (behind paywall), talks about a lot of contract issues, but I found the ambiguity discussion most interesting. The contract at issue, signed in 1986, tied the purchase price to whatever price Bitter Creek was paying the City of Sweetwater for water. At the time, Bitter Creek had been buying water from the City for many years. However, Bitter Creek no longer buys water from the City. Therefore, there’s a dispute over how to interpret the contractual purchase price now that there is no City purchase price to tie it to.

Sims contended that under the UCC he could opt to read a reasonable price into the contract, now that the City purchase price had failed. Bitter Creek, though, argued that the parties had agreed to an express fixed price that they no longer had agreement on. The court discusses the UCC’s application and ambiguity and finds that the provision is ambiguous and the parties’ intent needs to be examined, leading to a factual dispute that can’t be resolved on summary judgment.