Barrie School v. Patch’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"There is obviously the issue that I was most concerned with, and that was the issue of what effect liquidated damages has on the general rule that a party in— Plaintiff in the face of a breach does have some duty to mitigate. * * * Even if the amount is difficult to determine, I don't see why in the world they still shouldn't do something to mitigate. And again, even if the tuition amount does not exactly hit the number, it sure comes close to it in terms of going toward making them whole. And it's unquestionable that they did absolutely nothing whatsoever to try to fill the space for this child once they got the word in July that she was—that she was not going to be there. They—they didn't go through their old applications, they didn't put out any advertisements. They did absolutely nothing. And I understand there is the black letter rule. But I think even black letter rules are subject to some exception, and I don't see why, under the circumstances of this case, when they—even if it couldn't exactly correspond to exact amount that they would have been harmed, they— again, could have done a lot to have helped themselves out, at least to the extent of the amount they're suing for in this case. And that their failure to do so I do find to be fatal. So for that reason I'm going to also grant a Defendants' verdict on The Barrie School as Plaintiff."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Barrie School v. Patch

2. “"(1) May district and circuit courts deny discovery relating to the inducement, negotiation and formation of a contract containing a liquidated damages clause, on grounds that such discovery is `irrelevant' in light of this court's holding that a clause denominated as a liquidated damages clause, but, in fact, constituting a penalty is unenforceable? "(2) When a contract provides an express provision that `ANY ALTERATIONS OR MODIFICATIONS TO THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED BY THE SCHOOL,' may a court conclude, in the absence of contrary evidence, that the contract is not a contract of adhesion? "(3) Having denied discovery relating to the inducement and formation of a contract on grounds that it is `irrelevant' to an allegation of fraudulent or negligent inducement, may a court thereafter admit, over objection, and rely upon, hearsay evidence from the withholding party on the very same subject matter?"”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Barrie School v. Patch

3. “"I am satisfied that it is a valid liquidated damages provision, that based on the testimony of Mr. Goss, that there was—it would have been next to impossible to assign an exact amount as to the impact of losing one child for the school year. And that in light of that, and the fact that A, it was agreed to by the parties, this was not a contract of adhesion, certainly as I understand a contract of adhesion to be. These people could simply have walked away from this. Their lives did not—did not depend on signing this contract. And that basing one year's tuition or using one year's tuition as the measure is certainly not unreasonable and in fact, Mr. Goss' testimony was that it—probably the one year's tuition probably represented less than the actual costs of educating the child at Barrie School. Okay, so I find the contract is okay, including the liquidated damages provision."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Barrie School v. Patch