Court Opinion

ID: 9480375
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 07:46:14.337309+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:47:38.946108
License: Public Domain

JERRE S. WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I dissent from the holding of the majority of the Court that travel agent Hanssen did not receive guaranteed airline seats from Qantas when he placed with Qantas a 10% payment as to each seat as required by the airline. In my view the summary judgment in favor of Hanssen granted by the district court on this issue was correct. A binding contract had been entered. I am in full agreement with all of the remainder of the opinion of the majority. The contract does nothing to cover reservations on Trans Australia Airlines. Nor does it have any relevance to the claimed lost profits for a Tahiti extension tour.
The overwhelming and controlling fact to me is that the airline requirement that the travel agent put down a deposit of 10% for each seat requested means that the travel agent was being required by the airline to buy something. Under the analysis of the majority opinion, he bought nothing. Qantas tries to explain the demand for the down payment simply on the ground that they wanted to find out who was serious about reserving seats to Australia. Well, they did find out; agent Hanssen was serious enough to pay in advance 10% of the cost of each seat. He met their requirements.
If the deposit was meant to mean no more than a general indication that the travel agent was “serious”, there certainly could be simple language in the contract, drafted by Qantas, which would cover the point. If Qantas intended not to be bound, they could easily have said in their 10% requirement that payment of the deposit did not constitute an obligation to guarantee seat availability by Qantas. They made no such limitation. A contract is to be construed against the party responsible for its wording. I simply cannot read anything in the Qantas offer and the Hanssen down payment response that does anything other than constitute a promise by Qantas that it was selling a guarantee of seat availability to Hanssen for a 10% down payment on each seat. I repeat, any other interpretation simply means that Qantas was not promising a single thing for its receiving 10% of the fare on each seat reservation requested by Hanssen.
Interpretation of a contract is a legal matter. The contract is not one which is ambiguous, needing an explanation through the mechanism of a trial. On its *272face the contract is unambiguous, and travel agent Hanssen was entitled to the summary judgment he received on this issue.
I repeat my full agreement with the issue of reservations on Trans Australia Airways and other damages stemming from other matters. They were not covered at all in the clear and precise wording of the contract between the parties requiring the 10% payment. Thus, the case must be reversed, but it should be reversed only as to those matters. The summary judgment as to the Qantas obligation clearly undertaken by its firm and precise offer should not be at issue in the trial of the other issues in the case.