Opinion ID: 1214373
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Best Efforts

Text: Buyers argue that the question of whether sellers met their best efforts obligation was for the jury to decide. We agree. The best efforts provision was not only a protection for sellers, but also a protection for buyers. Section 4.1(a) created a standard of conduct for sellers' performance under the Agreement above and beyond the implied obligation of good faith. See 2 Farnsworth on Contracts § 7.17, p. 314 and § 7.17b, pp. 335-36 (1990), which state: Another term that courts often supply is one imposing a duty of `best' or `reasonable' efforts. Such a duty requires a party to make such efforts as are reasonable in the light of that party's ability and the means at its disposal and of the other party's justifiable expectations. Although the scope of this duty is no better defined than is the scope of the duty of good faith, it is clear that the duty of best efforts is more onerous than that of good faith. Because courts sometimes confuse the standard of best efforts with that of good faith, it will be well at the outset to make plain the distinction between the two standards. Good faith is a standard that has honesty and fairness at its core and that is imposed on every party to a contract. Best efforts is a standard that has diligence as its essence and is imposed on those contracting parties that have undertaken such performance. The two standards are distinct and that of best efforts is the more exacting, though it presumably falls short of the standard required of a fiduciary, one required `to act primarily for the benefit of another in matters connected with his undertaking.' (quoting Restatement (Second) of Agency § 13, comment a [1957]).