Carl Beasley Ford v. Burroughs

Citation: Carl Beasley Ford, Inc. v. Burroughs Corp., 361 F. Supp. 325 (E.D. Pa. 1973).

This case involved a written contract for computer equipment. Since Burroughs had a practice of not executing written agreements for programming support, Burroughs salesmen orally agreed to provide thirteen programs to plaintiff. These programs were never supplied in working condition. Burroughs contended that the written agreement contained an integration clause excluding all prior statements, including the fact that Burroughs would perform certain programming. The court, however, held that since the hardware was useless without the programming, and the written agreement did not specifically mention the programs, the written contract could not have constituted the entire agreement between the parties and Burrough's oral promise was admissible.