Smart Monday Attendees Get Real World Experience with Contract Litigation

Christian Hardigree of Kennesaw State University and Dana Cotham of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, came together Monday during MPI’s Smart Monday education on the eve of IMEX America for a lighthearted and informative session on meeting and event contract litigation.

With their “You Be The Jury!” idea in play, Hardigree and Cotham split the crowd into juries by their tables. Each table had roughly five people, with one person being chosen as the jury foreman by fellow participants.

Emphasizing the importance of the phrase “words matter,” Cotham began the session with a brief rundown of important litigation terms. Highlighting the “elements of a valid contract,” both speakers spoke of mutuality, valid consideration, legality, capacity and genuine assent before going into the contract dispute of the National Association of Postmasters of the United States (NAPUS) and Hyatt Regency Washington (Hyatt), based on an actual case.

Hardigree and Cotham explained that NAPUS was suing Hyatt to absolve themselves from paying liquidation fees after terminating their longstanding contract when two NAPUS conferences expecting to be held at Hyatt were cancelled. Pausing in-between the facts of the case, “jurors” deliberated while the speakers made their way around the room to join in on each table’s small discussion.

As the deliberations came to an end, each table discovered that they made the same judgment as the actual courts of the case. In reviewing what cost NAPUS approximately a half a million dollars, Cotham stressed that the most important thing they lost in the case was a longstanding client. Session attendees learned that while some people can tend to get “lazy” with their constant use of contracts, people in the meeting and event industry truly can’t afford to. Cotham highlighted the fact that professionals aren’t in a position to wait until things get bad before taking action.

Hardigree and Cotham enlightened the audience on different ways the situation could have been handled while briefly taking a few questions prior to taking a break before beginning their second session.