Court Opinion

ID: 9480253
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 07:42:23.247771+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:47:34.027743
License: Public Domain

SNEED, Circuit Judge,
concurring separately:
I concur in Judge Kozinski’s thoughtful and comprehensive opinion. At a time when “authority” is a preferred source of rights and duties in this nation, it is good to read that “contract” is also a proper source of rights and duties. Judge Kozinski properly decries the transmutation of “contract” to “authority” by courts committed to redistributing wealth as between the parties and their attorneys.
*772On the other hand, it must be recognized that “authority” sometimes wears the mask of “contract.” A relationship in which the “consent” of one party is coerced rests not on “contract” but, to the extent it is enforceable by law, on “authority.” Courts frequently go astray by finding “coercion” when only inattention and convenience produced a “bad bargain” for a party. Too often do judges seek to protect the foolish from their folly. On the other hand, not all documents purporting to be contracts embody consent determined either subjectively or objectively. Parties should be bound by their words so long as, and only so long as, the words are theirs.
In this case there can be little doubt but that the words are those of the parties. Moreover, there exists no valid reason to excuse performance of the promises these words embody. Under these circumstances, to deny enforcement would be to reject “contract” as a source of obligations and entitlements and, as a consequence, to reduce the freedom of all.