Opinion ID: 215200
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: June 3 Draft Agreement

Text: The June 3 draft agreement4 was attached to an e-mail to Validsa from Alfonzo Gravina, Purchasing Manager for PSI, and contained a header stating “DRAFT WITH NO LEGAL OR COMMERCIAL VALUE [sic].” The draft 4 Again, the original version of this e-mail was written in Spanish; we use the translation provided to the district court. 9 agreement stated that “[t]he Parties bind themselves to comply with each and every one of the reciprocal obligations deriving from the Purchase Orders with respect to the amounts to be delivered subsequent to” agreement on these new terms. This draft also contained, inter alia, a new delivery schedule, a forum selection clause, and, most importantly, language now naming PSI as the party responsible for paying the debts owed Validsa. The cover e-mail invited Validsa to “send to me . . . any comments you may have . . . .” Validsa did not respond to this communication, or contact PSI or Bariven at all. Instead of contacting them, Validsa filed suit on June 12, 2008. At the time this lawsuit was filed, Validsa alleged the status of the contracts was: 10 March 2008 Contracts November 2007 Contracts Contract 632 757 326 368 405 Subject Sugar Beef Beef Chicken Beef Value $44.7 $103.9 $24.6 $21.4 $1.5 million million million million million Delivery No Delivery 1 installment Complete Complete Complete Status delivered Unpaid 0 0 $1,599,923 $4,157,021 $62,487 Balance Advance $13,407,600 $31,172,976 n/a n/a n/a Paid on April 2 Scheduled 9-Apr-08 30-Mar-08 n/a n/a n/a Delivery Date The one installment delivered under March 2008 contract 757 constituted 427.3 metric tons of beef. Given the contract price of $4,329.58 per ton, this installment was arguably worth about $1,850,000.5 At the time suit was filed, PSI and Bariven owed a total of $5,819,431 on the three November 2007 contracts and for the one delivery on contract 757, but, notably, Validsa still had Bariven’s $44.580 million in advances.