In a letter decision about a contract’s forum-selection provision, Vice-Chancellor Sam Glasscock addressed a separate forum-selection provision in a related agreement, which stated: “any litigation necessary to enforce any of the provision of [the Settlement Agreement] shall be venued [22] in the Circuit Court . . . in Madison, Dane County, Wisconsin.” (Emphasis added, alterations by the court.) VC Glasscock drily footnoted:
22. I understand that in the free-swinging twenty-first century, verbs and nouns are not binary concepts, and each is free to dabble in the other’s pond. Some such usages ring like a cracked bell, nonetheless. I confess, the verbal form of “venue” is one: hearing it makes me break out in hives (or, consonant with this locution, I’m hived).
NB Alternatives Advisers LLC v. VAT Master Corp., No. 2020-0930-Sg (Del. Ch. Apr. 22, 2021) (granting permanent injunction against litigation outside the agreed exclusive forum) (emphasis added).
(Hat tip: Chris Lemens in a blog comment.)
Signing a business contract: