FL · jury_instructions
Fla. Std. Jury Instr. (Contract & Bus.) 416.18
INTERPRETATION — CONSTRUCTION BY CONDUCT
In deciding what the disputed term(s) of the contract mean, you should consider how the parties acted before and after the contract was created.
SOURCES AND AUTHORITIES FOR 416.18
In the face of ambiguity on an issue, a jury is free to look at the subsequent conduct of the parties to determine the parties’ intent and the contract’s meaning. See Rafael J. Roca, P.A. v. Lytal, Reiter, Clark, Roca, Fountain & Williams, 856 So.2d 1, 5 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003) (“Where an agreement is ambiguous, the meaning of the agreement may be ascertained by looking to the interpretation the parties have given the agreement and the parties’ conduct throughout their course of dealings.”); Mayflower Corp. v. Davis, 655 So.2d 1134, 1137 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994) (“Courts have also looked to the conduct of the parties throughout their course of dealings to determine their intentions and the meaning of the agreement.”).
Provenance
- Source
- floridabar.org
- Retrieved
- 2026-08-18
- Edition
- 2026-08-18
- Content hash
24ca40bd5c556f9531453ea8e16ab5f9cf373eb3535123e67e5d3472e8792bb0
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