Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago v. Thorpe

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• stating that “[a]ll the Illinois cases that our research has disclosed that found a condition precedent to the formation of a contract contain express language on the face of the contract to support that construction”
• stating that “[a]ll the Illinois cases that our research has disclosed that found a condition precedent to the formation of a contract contain express language on the face of the contract to support that construction”
• held that a liquidated damages provision giving the seller the option to claim the earnest money as liquidated damages is unenforceable as a penalty
• condition precedent found where intent is expressly stated on face of contract
• “A condition precedent is one that must be met before a contract becomes effective or that is to be performed by one party to an existing contract before the other party is obligated to perform.” (quotation marks omitted)
• “if the termination is caused by the Purchaser's fault, then at the option of the Seller and upon notice to the Purchaser, the earnest money shall be forfeited to the Seller … to be retained by the Seller as liquidated damages.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).