The Seventh Circuit enforced a forum selection clause despite the plaintiff’s claim that the defendant fraudulently induced the contract containing it. The court never explained, in a way that Blawgletter at least could understand, why the fraudulent inducement charge didn’t knock out the forum selection clause.
We would guess that the plaintiff’s decision to "affirm" the contract and sue for damages (instead of trying to rescind it) would have ended the analysis; she can’t enforce part of the contract (and get damages for breach) while disclaiming the forum selection provisions. But the court didn’t explain things that way. So we’ll just have to guess at the ratio decidendi. Kochert v. Adagen Medical Int’l, Inc., No. 05-4483 (7th Cir. June 28, 2007).
Blawgletter detects among Seventh Circuit judges a zest for highlighting what they see as the errors of others. It comes across as almost pedantic sometimes. We hope they will lighten up.
Barry Barnett
