Second defense, still valid, no violation of ‘mend the hold’ doctrine

Federal Courts

By Jay S. Judge

Jay S. Judge, a name partner of Judge, James, Hoban & Fisher LLC in Park Ridge, is a defense attorney who specializes in trials, appeals and insurance coverage. Judge graduated with honors from The John Marshall Law School and served as editor-in-chief of the school’s law review.

Posted June 6, 2017 1:37 PM

Today’s decision addresses the little-used “mend the hold” defense, which the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals distilled in 1990 as a question of good faith versus bad in the realm of contracts.“A party who hokes up a phony defense to the performance of his contractual duties and then when that defense fails (at some expense to the other party) tries on another defense for size can properly be said to be acting in bad faith. Larson explicitly connects the ‘mend the hold’ doctrine to …

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