Question

For 20 years, Art’s Flower Shop relied almost exclusively on advertising in the yellow pages to bring business to its shop in a small West Virginia town. One year, the yellow pages printer accidentally did not print Art’s ad, and Art’s suffered an enormous drop in business. Art’s sued for negligence and won a judgment of $50,000 from the jury, but the printing company appealed, claiming that under an exculpatory clause in the contract, the company could not be liable to Art’s for more than the cost of the ad, about $910. Art’s claimed that the exculpatory clause was unconscionable. Please rule.

Answer 1

Answer: The clause is unconscionable

Explanation:An unconscionable clause could be explained as a proposed agreement between two parties such that the terms of agreement is so biased or one-sided and hence unenforceable. The exculpatory clause in the other hand refers to a clause which relieves a party of liability during contract execution.

Based on the facts derived from the context above, Arts' claim that the exculpatory clause in the contract was unconscionable is true, this is because The yellow pages served as Arts' flower's only advertising channel for over twenty years, this is a clear exercise of monopoly. And yellow page negligence cost Arts' flower dearly even after monopolizing their advertisement option and as such yellow pages should be held accountable for negligence.