Loft 310 Wins Unanimous Jury Verdict

Unanimous Jury Verdict

On March 14, 2023, a unanimous jury in Kalamazoo County 9th Judicial Circuit Court cleared Loft 310 and Entertainment Managers LLC on every count of the lawsuit filed by Kristyn and Bryant Powers. Ryan Reedy is the company's business manager in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Lawsuits draw attention when they are filed. What happens after the evidence is tested takes longer to surface. This is the record.

Every claim against the company that has reached a jury has been decided in the company's favor.

What this meant for our clients

Entertainment Managers was one of many wedding venue operators across the state affected by the pandemic shutdown orders.

Out of 125 clients and nearly 400 events scheduled during 2020-21, the Powers and roughly fourteen other couples chose to hold their events elsewhere and asked to be released from their contracts, including from costs the company had already paid out on their behalf: vendor deposits, food and beverage orders, staffing, and dates held off the calendar.

Those disagreements went to court. The question in each was the same: whether a government order that made a date impossible released a client from the contract, and from costs already incurred under it. The company's position was that it did not, and that the contract said so. That is the question the Powers jury answered - unanimously, and in the company's favor.

On October 3, 2023, the Michigan Supreme Court ordered the Court of Appeals to review a ruling in a related case. On remand, the Court of Appeals unanimously reversed the lower court, citing four categories of error and five erroneous factual rulings. That case ended in a stipulated dismissal with prejudice.

Lessons learned

Loft 310 advises businesses to review their contracts and to specify mediation, then arbitration, for resolving disputes. Settle out of court where possible, and be prepared to appeal an adverse ruling.

I apologize to all of our clients for having to draw a hard line during the pandemic. We did so to protect the nearly 400 events our clients had entrusted to us, the overwhelming majority of which went ahead as agreed. For Ryan Reedy and the entire team, it was a fight worth having.

Respectfully,

Ryan Reedy

What we'd tell anyone signing a wedding venue contract

The pandemic tested language that almost nobody reads closely before they sign. These are the questions we would want any couple to ask, of any venue:

• Ask what happens if a government order, a venue closure, or a vendor failure makes your date impossible, and get the answer in the contract rather than in conversation.

• Ask whether a postponement earns full credit, how long that credit lasts, and which dates it can be applied to.

• Ask which costs are committed on your behalf before the event, and at what point those costs stop being recoverable.

• Ask how changes get documented, and keep every confirmation in writing.

• Ask how disputes are resolved before you sign, not after: mediation first, then arbitration, and who pays the cost of each.

Nobody signing a venue contract in 2019 thought to ask any of this. Everyone should ask it now, of any venue.

Learn more about Loft 310 and our event venues in Downtown Kalamazoo.