Opinion ID: 1058992
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Post-Contractual Conduct

Text: In ruling from the bench that Bentley intended the Contract to convey the Escrows as part of the Project, as opposed to the Property, the trial court hinged its analysis of the Contract on the parties' post-contractual conduct. That conduct consisted of one unilateral event, Bentley's failure to list the Escrows in its bankruptcy proceeding. I think [the finding that the escrow agreements are part of the project is] most strongly borne out by the conduct of the parties after they've entered into the contract.... [T]he controlling issue is really the conduct of the parties after they've entered into the contract ... while Bently [sic] claims this is their asset, [it] does not include the [escrows as an asset] in the bankruptcy action. Nothing speaks louder to this Court to indicate to the Court, as far as Bently [sic] was concerned, those escrows were not part of an asset of Bently [sic]. In support of the trial court's use of post-contractual conduct to interpret the Contract, SK & R cites our decision in Bott v. N. Snellenburg & Co., Inc., 177 Va. 331, 340, 14 S.E.2d 372, 375 (1941). We noted therein: The well-recognized rule is that if a written instrument may have two interpretations, the courts, in endeavoring to determine the intention of the parties will follow the one which they put upon it by their own actions. As we noted above, however, there was no ambiguity in the Contract, and its plain language conveyed only the defined Property, which did not include the Escrows as a development right or otherwise. As the plain meaning of the Contract yields but one interpretation, the trial court erred in deeming Bentley's post-contractual conduct as evidence of an intent contrary to the wording of the Contract. Where no obscurity exists ... the acts of the parties done under the contracts bear no weight as an indication of their intention. Moore v. Chesapeake & O.R. Co., 159 Va. 703, 730, 167 S.E. 351, 360 (1933) (citations omitted).