american initials the good old american nationals based on the concessions which i learned opponent has made in his brief there really is just one issue here the question is whether the force majeure clause excuse performance of the contracts that were still outstanding when the general group decided to go out of business the facts the s k the ultimate manufacture the ball paper here is a company called  have contact with my clients but they didn't have a contact with supplies they generally did not have a contract with its own supplier didn't have a distributorship agreement and was a contract with your client specify that it had to be  this particular paper no it was obviously intended to be the paper from chandon that's what they were purchasing but the argument that the paper was unique is ridiculous was there anything in the record to reap at that there's it would have been impossible to do that i made no attempt  i mean that that's the only evidence that was before the district or you got that one isolated statement is the only evidence whatsoever on that point and there was no evidence that he made any attempt there was also testimony that he couldn't get a contract with his father in law because it was his father in law and because of chinese customs was there any evidence in the record that it would have been possible to get a contract and that wouldn't have been like as an expert saying in family in forcible contacts with his father not to be denied the papers that he was obligated to so he testified as to why he had no in forcible contract i guess my concern here is the district court made a finding that i mean that's one sentence that chandon decided to terminate his relationship and as a result georgi was forced to close its operations and so it seems that it was after a bench trial so it seems as if reasonable min here the facts are undisputed the question is whether these facts are as a matter of law sufficient to support the conclusion that the force majeure clause was that he was obligated to take reasonable steps to perform we can't just say i'm unable to again are you saying that as a matter of law georgi was not forced to close its operation and say as a matter of law he did not take reasonable steps to perform the contract in this situation he he did not takes reasonable steps before chandon cut him off by having some kind of in forcible contract him he made no attempt to force him and he submitted orders there is some kind of an agreement there are but he made no attempt to enforce those orders he simply acquiesced in his father not decision not to prevail the contract and he made no he says it would have been impossible to find alternative goods for the football paper we think as a matter of law kangaroo it doesn't matter what they were the point is they were in the business of supplying paper right and when when the paper supply is becomes  reasonable commercially reasonable what is required to be commercially reasonable that would certainly be commercially reasonable generally a group had been a distributor of paper where they could go to different manufacturers and purchase their product and sell it to its customers but they were not in that function so they couldn't go to another company and offer to buy paper well legally they could but that was not their function they were set up as the export sales arm of a particular manufacturer of paper and that was all that they were functioning as they were not functioning as and so they are in the business doing that and without disclosing that customers manage to have some sort of contractual relationship with basically mr wayne and his wife they own generally a group basically with mr one's father in law and her father they would not have been in business because they never would have agreed to that type of relationship their family situation back and the mission then they shouldn't have been in business but about being in business without having a contract to back up your supply you hold your supplier and because we are buddies with the father in law not you know the follow the law changed his mind sorry correct that is saying this is actually this is even better and if you if you look at situation what would you rather have if you're an american company would you want to try to sue a manufacturer in china to enforce a contract or would you say look that's my father and that's my father in law at any one's going to do something right by us he's going to do it because you know one case it's my father in law in the other case it's my father california law i've never seen anything for a smoker like this and are you saying that your client couldn't have been for had he had a contract with his the other company chan dong would not have been able to enforce the contract in china i believe in a practical matter absolutely that would be correct and and i can do it or could not and that we would not be able to enforce that effectively in china as well as the fact that i don't think i'm so this is the way to this is based on your personal this is based on your personal knowledge perhaps not anything in the record it's not based on anything in the record that's correct except for the fact that my client said having this family relationship is better than a contract which is which is on the record  finish finish your answer and the issue here about the paper it was actually the testimony of s k b s chief executive that this paper was unique to this mill and that was why he was he was trying to purchase that paper and that's why was not replace by generally group had wanted to go into the open market and try to buy a place in paper they couldn't do it if i could i'm just finished remodeling my house i want to understand use as an example for force majeure if i hire someone to build stairs in my home and i sign a contract with them and they say for way too much money they're going to build my staircase for me and then they start construction and then one day the son of this family business comes in and says you know what my dad we had a fight and he won't let me have my tools anymore so i'm sorry i can't i can't build your stairs and you're already in force majeure and my stuck with a half built staircase relationship my client generally crew is telling us k b look we're acting as the expert sales arm for the specific manufacturer of this same things a mile that the son says you know what i have my dad is the master stair builder i'm kind of the sales guy i speak english better than he does so i can get you a great deal because my dad is the master stair builder well if he's saying that and he says he's depending on the on the father to do the work and then the father comes in later and says he cannot do the work then i'm just not a l that i think that force majeure is proper use of think that at that point he has to find some other stair builder with tools to fill and finish the job i think fix that that's possible that's that's certainly something that he should be doing but in this that's not the situation here where someone is function as the export sales arm for a manual setting and you have something here saying this is not possible it does say that this company is the export sales if you could if this were the rule if you could if you could get away with this you could set up if you were chandon you set up your son in law to be a distributor if you want to honor your contracts you can if you want to want to walk away forever there's nothing wrong with can and if a customer who ordered paper from you want to purchase on paper with they have a certain expectation as far as the quality and nature of paper answer yes correct and could they substitute that or get to another e mail and expect to receive the same type  quality a favor answer no we would we would greet the paper must be of a certain quality but there was no evidence that you could have a kind equivalent paper in the open market and the fact that they chose to shut down their business rather than attempting to find alternative goods is not commercially reasonable it can't be the law that you can walk away from the contract just because your supplier chooses not to go without without doing more than that