Pavone v. Kirke
Iowa Supreme Court
807 N.W.2d 828 (2011)
John Pavone and Signature Management Group (SMG) (plaintiffs) had a contract with Gerald Kirke's Wild Rose Entertainment (defendant) to negotiate in good faith over management services for future Iowa casino projects; after Wild Rose received a casino license for Emmetsburg, it sent SMG a letter declaring the contract terminated by its own terms, though it later told SMG it would internally discuss a future relationship and was "still willing to work on finding common ground," and did not respond when SMG later sent a proposed management agreement for the Emmetsburg project. When Wild Rose received a second casino license for Clinton, SMG sued alleging breach of contract as to that project, and the trial court found Wild Rose had repudiated the contract and granted it summary judgment; SMG appealed, arguing Wild Rose's "common ground" language retracted the repudiation.
Whether a repudiating party's vague statement of willingness to "find common ground" retracts an otherwise clear and unequivocal repudiation of a contract.