Opinion ID: 2599564
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Breach of Contract and Breach of Implied Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing

Text: The district court concluded that the omission of an essential term addressing the uninsurability of Boling rendered the insurance clause of Paragraph No. 6 ambiguous, thus permitting the court to infer a term which is reasonable under the circumstances. Determining that a reasonable term can be inferred from the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, the district court resolved that Boling was under a duty to use reasonable efforts to secure insurance and did so. Thus, no breach of contract or covenant of good faith and fair dealing was found. When the parties to a bargain sufficiently defined to be a contract have not agreed with respect to a term which is essential to a determination of their rights and duties, a term which is reasonable in the circumstances is supplied by the court. Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 204 (1981). Every contract is deemed to contain an implied term of good faith and fair dealing. Roussalis v. Wyoming Medical Center, No. 96-219, slip op. at 39, 2000 WL 424323 (April 20, 2000); see Wilder v. Cody Country Chamber of Commerce, 868 P.2d 211 (Wyo.1994); McIlravy v. Kerr-McGee, 119 F.3d 876, 882 (10th Cir.1997). We have defined good faith to mean: [F]aithfulness to an agreed common purpose and consistency with the justified expectations of the other party; it excludes a variety of types of conduct characterized as involving `bad faith' because they violate community standards of decency, fairness or reasonableness. Wilder, 868 P.2d at 220 (citing Restatement (Second) of Contracts § 205 at 100, cmt. a (1981)); McIlravy, 119 F.3d at 882. Common sense and good faith are leading precepts of contract construction, and we employ these measures in our effort to construe the parties' agreement. Polo Ranch Company v. City of Cheyenne, 969 P.2d 132, 136 (Wyo.1998) (citing Moncrief v. Louisiana Land & Exploration Co., 861 P.2d 516, 524 (Wyo.1993)); Klutznick v. Thulin, 814 P.2d 1267, 1270 (Wyo.1991). Boling spent eight months in the pursuit of life insurance with two different insurance agents, shopping numerous insurance companies, as well as submitting to life style changes and medication to improve his insurability. Absent a clause in the Agreement to provide for his uninsurablility, we conclude, as did the district court, Boling was required to employ reasonable efforts to procure life insurance. We agree Boling was faithful and reasonable in his efforts, and no breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing occurred.