Mercury Investment Co. v. F.W. Woolworth Co.

How courts have described this case

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

• terms in contract given their plain and ordinary meaning unless used by parties to convey a technical sense
• construction of ambiguous contract is a matter of law for the court
• where recital of consideration is not intended by parties to be contractual, parol evidence is admissible to show the true consideration for a contract and that consideration was greater or less than, or different from, that expressed in writing
• “While parol testimony cannot vary, modify or contradict the terms of the instrument, it is admissible to explain the meaning of words when there is a latent ambiguity in the written text of the agreement.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).