Also known as: usages · trade usage · usage of trade
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
2 senses
A habitual or customary practice in a trade, profession, or locality.
Parties to an agreement may use a relevant practice to interpret or supplement their contract when each knew or had reason to know of the practice and neither knew the other attached an inconsistent meaning.
Each sense below has its own examples, sources, and questions.
A habitual or customary practice in a trade, profession, or locality.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Parties to an agreement may use a relevant practice to interpret or supplement their contract when each knew or had reason to know of the practice and neither knew the other attached an inconsistent meaning.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Ulysses Ulrich obtained a default judgment in State B against Urban Logistics. When Ulysses sought to enforce the judgment in State A, the clerk attached the court seal and a judge certified the attestation. The State A court admitted the judgment under the rule that records authenticated this way receive the same credit they have by law or usage in the originating state.
Uliana Ustinova operated a small crop-dusting service over rural fields. A neighbor sued under strict liability after chemical drift caused damage. The court held the activity was a matter of common usage in the agricultural region and therefore not subject to strict liability under the abnormally dangerous activity factors.
Upland Industries contracted with Uptown Apparel to supply fabric at a set price per yard. The writing omitted any quantity term. Because both parties knew that suppliers in the apparel trade routinely fill repeat orders at the buyer's historical average volume, the court interpreted the agreement to require continued shipments at that level.
Urban Utley agreed to deliver produce to Unity Capital's warehouse. The contract said only "prompt delivery." Evidence showed that produce wholesalers in the region treat delivery within forty-eight hours as the established practice. The court used that usage to determine whether Urban's three-day delay breached the agreement.
Umeko Uchida contracted with Urban Logistics to cater a corporate event at a per-person price. The writing contained no attrition clause. Umeko knew that event caterers routinely permit a fifteen-percent reduction in final headcount without penalty. The court therefore interpreted the agreement to allow the reduction.
Ulf Ulfsson ordered custom parts from Upland Industries under a purchase order that used the trade term "net thirty." Upland knew that the term meant payment was due thirty days after delivery in the industry. Because Ulf had reason to know of that usage, the court treated Ulf as bound by it even though Ulf privately believed it meant thirty days after inspection.
A usage supplements an agreement when each party knows or has reason to know of the usage and neither knows the other intends something inconsistent with it. Express terms control only when a consistent reading is unreasonable.
Supporting sources
No. It is enough that each party knew or had reason to know of the usage. Reason to know arises from the parties' experience in the trade or from the nature of the transaction.
Supporting sources
Existence and scope are questions of fact. A party may prove usage through testimony, trade codes, or prior dealings showing that the practice is habitual in the relevant market.
Supporting sources
…meant the Public Use Clause to have a similarly sweeping scope. Other founding-era documents made the contrast between these two usages still more explicit. See Sales, Classical Republicanism and the Fifth Amendment's "Public Use" Requirement, 49 Duke L. J. 339, 367-368 (1999) (hereinafter Sales) (noting contrast between,…