Limitations on Liability Exceptions – Interplay between Contract Terms and Legal Principles

In contracts, parties typically seek to limit their liability to each other, both in terms of the types of damages or actions for which a party will have liability and the amount of damages that can be recovered, as well as, in certain cases, the remedies that can be pursued. The parties often negotiate exceptions from these limitations, including for gross negligence or willful misconduct. During this podcast, Chris Houpt, Linda Rhodes and Anja Watt along with host Julian Dibbell will examine the definitions of gross negligence and willful misconduct, recent court holdings on the ability of contracting parties to limit liability and the implications for contracts. For purposes of this podcast, we focus on New York law, commonly selected as the governing law in contracts.