Warning
Info
- - tl;dr
- - ICRA
- - Facts & Holding
- - DeepDive
0 0
United States District Court for the District of Kansas - 104 F.Supp.2d 1332, 104 F. Supp. 2d 1332
Tags: Formation, Additional Terms
See also: Hill v. Gateway 2000 (7th Cir. 1997)
Video Summary
Case Summary
In Klocek v. Gateway, Inc., a significant contract law case, the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas examined if a computer buyer was bound by an arbitration clause within a standard terms and conditions agreement sent by the seller. The case took place at the federal trial level and concerned a dispute over contract formation and enforceability.
William Klocek, the plaintiff, ordered a computer from Gateway, Inc., a company selling computers via phone and mail orders. After ordering by phone and providing his credit card information, Gateway confirmed his order and sent the computer. Inside the package was the Standard Terms and Conditions Agreement, which indicated that the buyer accepted the agreement if they kept the computer for over five days. Klocek did not read or sign the agreement.
Klocek faced issues with the computer and returned it within 30 days after being unhappy with Gateway's technical support. He filed a class action lawsuit against Gateway, who argued that Klocek was bound by the arbitration clause. The district court disagreed and applied the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), concluding that Klocek and Gateway formed a contract without the arbitration clause.
This case is crucial in understanding how courts apply the UCC in phone or mail order contracts with standard terms and conditions. It highlights the factors determining offers, acceptances, or counteroffers and whether they bind non-merchant buyers.
DeepDiveHighlight a legal term to see the definition
The plaintiff sued Gateway and Hewlett-Packard for breach of contract and warranty related to the purchase of a computer and scanner. Gateway argued that the plaintiff must arbitrate his claims under the Standard Terms and Conditions Agreement, which includes an arbitration clause. The court overruled Gateway's motion to dismiss and sustained Hewlett-Packard's motion to dismiss. The court must determine the applicable state law for contract formation before deciding whether the parties agreed to arbitrate. The Uniform Commercial Code applies to the transaction between the parties as it governs transactions in goods. The issue is whether the Standard Terms are part of the agreement under the contract of sale, regardless of whether the plaintiff purchased the computer in person or received it through shipment. Gateway is urging the court to follow the Seventh Circuit decision in Hill, which enforced an arbitration clause in a computer shipment with terms similar to the Standard Terms in this case.
LSD+ Case Briefs
Features
- DeepDive for detailed case analysis
- Over 50,000 existing case briefs
- Instant briefs for another 6,000,000 cases
- Highlight dictionary for legal term definitions
- Social learning with chat and high points
Over 50,000 Cases Briefed
LSD+ gives you access to over 50,000 case briefs, more than anyone else. Be the first to email us the website of a case brief product that offers you more case briefs and we'll give you a free year of LSD+.
14-Day Free Trial
Unlimited access. Read as much content as you want during your trial with no device limitations. Cancel any time during your trial and keep access for the full 14 days.
Integrated Legal Dictionary
Lawyers and judges love to use big words. And Latin, for some reason.
Highlight a legal term in LSD Briefs and get an instant, plain English definition. Try highlighting contract or specific performance. No need to search or read through a list of definitions, simply highlight the words you don’t know and our LSDefine integration will instantly give you a definition to any of over 30,000 legal terms.
DeepDive
DeepDive allows you to explore legal cases like never before. DeepDive offers multiple levels of case summaries, which empowers you to quickly and easily find the information you need to stay on top of readings. Easily navigate through summary levels and click on any text to get more detail, all the way down to the original legal case text.
Brief anything. Instantly.
Our proprietary state-of-the-art system can instantly brief over 6,000,000 US cases. That means we can probably brief that case that your professor assigned last night when she sent you a poorly scanned pdf and told you to read every third paragraph. Or maybe she uploaded it to Canvas and didn’t really tell you to read it, but you know you probably should. Tenure does wild things to good people.
Social Learning with Chat and High Points
Study groups are a great way to learn and explore a case. LSD has chat rooms for each case to let you ask questions across the community and hear what other students struggled with and how they put it all together. Learn the key points of every case from other LSD+ users and share your knowledge with LSD High Points.
Real-Time Brief Feedback
Don’t settle for mistakes in briefs that have been there for 10 years and never fixed. Find an issue or something missing from a brief? Down vote and we will make improvements. All of our case brief editors graduated from from T14 law schools.