Opinion ID: 720636
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Massachusetts Unfair Trade Practices Act

Text: 34 Valley also brings a claim under MUTPA. See Mass.Gen.L. ch. 93A, § 1 et seq. The district court directed a verdict against Valley on this claim, following the authority of Northeast Data Sys., Inc. v. McDonnell Douglas Computer Sys. Co., 986 F.2d 607 (1st Cir.1993), and Worldwide Commodities, Inc. v. J. Amicone Co., 630 N.E.2d 615, 36 Mass.App.Ct. 304 (1994). In Northeast Data, the court reasoned that, with respect to MUTPA claims that are in essence reframed contract claims, a contractual choice of law clause specifying that the rights and obligations of the parties ... shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of California, would apply to MUTPA claims as well as ordinary contract claims. Northeast Data, 986 F.2d at 609. Since California had no statute that paralleled MUTPA, the Northeast Data court affirmed dismissal of the claims. Id. at 611. The district court ruled that this was a parallel case, and directed verdict against Valley--finding that since the valid written agreement provides that New York law shall apply, a claim based on Massachusetts law is barred.... 35 A decision of the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts that was announced subsequent to the district court's ruling on the MUTPA claim, however, distinguished Northeast Data, and requires a different result in our case. In Jacobson v. Mailboxes Etc. U.S.A., Inc., 646 N.E.2d 741, 746 n. 9, 419 Mass. 572, 580 n. 9 (1995), the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that an agreement which does not state that the rights of the parties are to be governed by [non-Massachusetts] law but only that the agreement is to be governed and construed by [non-Massachusetts] law .... does not purport to bar the application of [MUTPA] to the parties' dealings in Massachusetts. Unlike the choice of law clause in Northeast Data, which referred to the parties' rights and obligations under the contract, the contract at issue here--like that in Jacobson--states only that the Agreement is to be governed by the laws of the State of New York. As explained earlier, we are bound in our consideration of the Valley action by Massachusetts choice of law principles. Massachusetts would not interpret the choice of law clause in the Agreement to bar Valley's MUTPA claim by requiring that it proceed under New York law. See id. We therefore remand the MUTPA claim for further consideration by the district court.