Opinion ID: 3010664
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Teaming Agreement as Contract

Text: With these principles in mind, we consider whether the teaming agreement itself, as expressed in the parties' correspondences, constitutes an enforceable contract notwithstanding the parties' ultimate failure to execute a subcontract for the Greek project. Because no party on appeal asserts as a defense a lack of consideration, we look to: (1) whether both parties manifested an intention to be bound by the teaming agreement; and (2) whether the terms of that agreement are sufficiently definite. 14 The district court concluded that the parties manifested their mutual assent to be bound by the terms of the teaming arrangement, as outlined in the various letters circulated between plaintiffs and defendant. Wefind nothing clearly erroneous with this factual finding. The record contains numerous correspondences by both parties clearly indicating their inten[t] to team and work exclusively with each other in preparation for the Greek RFP. App. at 1671. Defendant itself represented to the Greek government that plaintiffs constituted part of the team that would undertake the project under defendant's auspices as prime contractor. As a result, we conclude, as did the district court, that the plaintiffs have met their burden in establishing the intention to be bound by the terms of the teaming agreement during the negotiations for a subcontract to be executed by the parties. Even if plaintiffs have established evidence of the parties' mutual assent to be bound by the teaming agreement, that agreement must contain sufficiently definite terms for enforcement or else, as explained above, there is no basis for the court to fashion a suitable remedy. After a thorough review of the relevant correspondences, the district court concluded that the plaintiffs established sufficiently definite terms of the teaming arrangement. In particular, the district court held that plaintiffs had promised to assist in defendant's bid for the Greek RFP, introduce defendant to their Greek agent, and work exclusively with defendant in return for good faith and exclusive negotiations with plaintiffs toward executing a subcontract. We agree that the letters of intent and draft subcontracts exchanged between the parties clearly outline the terms of this transaction as an expression of the parties' intent. This is not, as defendant argues on appeal, nothing more than a simple agreement to agree given the specificity of the duties carefully described in the draft subcontracts and letters of intent. Nor did the parties indicate that the terms of their teaming agreement were subject to final execution of the subcontract. See Schermer v. Wilmart, 127 A. 315, 315-16 (Pa. 1925). Thus, because the plaintiffs have successfully proved the elements of contract formation as applied to teaming agreements, we conclude that the teaming agreement between plaintiffs and defendant constitutes a 15 valid and enforceable contract with the terms found by the district court. Accordingly, to the extent that defendant's cross-appeal challenges the district court's finding that the teaming arrangement was an enforceable contract, we will affirm.