Article of Interest

A Punch List for Construction of Statutes & Contracts
By: Scott Brister and Eric Osborne

Have you ever been faced with a question of contractual or statutory interpretation and had the feeling that there is some principle of law that you might be overlooking? If so, you probably were thinking of the canons of construction. Many lawyers are introduced to these principles of common law during law school but then ignore or forget them as practitioners.  Moreover, even if you think a canon might apply to your case, it's often difficult to identify what canon of construction may guide a particular issue of interpretation and even more difficult to find a case applying that canon. 

To aid in this, we have collected a list of the most common canons of statutory and contractual interpretation, complete with cases applying the canons in question.  Consider it our gift during this holiday season—a helpful list that we hope you may turn to again and again during your future years of practice.  Please click here.

Scott Brister is a former Texas Supreme Court Justice and a partner in the appellate section at Andrews Kurth Kenyon LLP’s Austin office.  He can be reached by email at scottbrister@andrewskurth.com.

Eric Osborne is an associate at Andrews Kurth Kenyon LLP’s Houston office, where his practice focuses on appellate and complex commercial litigation.  He can be reached by email at ericosborne@andrewskurth.com.