Legal Memorandum: Defendants' Objections to Plaintiff's Interrogatories

Issue: Under the laws of the Virgin Islands, what must defendant show in order to avoid responding to plaintiff’s interrogatories?

It is not uncommon for business contracts to provide that upon termination of the original term, the contract shall be renewed for successive terms without further action by the parties.  The provisions generally provide that the contracts may be terminated at the end of any period by either of the parties, provided written notice is received by the other party not less that a certain number of days prior to the expiration of the term.   

First, there are a variety of current statutes that reference self-renewing contracts, but none address the issue with regard to service agreements in general.  Moreover, they tend to allow for such contracts rather than invalidating them.  Minn. Stat. § 308B.311, subd. 3 (2009), for instance, which addresses agricultural product marketing agreements, provides that “[a] single term of a marketing contract shall not exceed ten years, but a marketing contract may be made self-renewing for periods not exceeding five years each, subject to the right of either party to terminate by giving written notice of the termination during a period of the current term as specified in the contract.”  Other contexts in which such contracts are specifically endorsed include, for example, wells and drilling, public health, and state employment.

As far as current or recent legislative activity, the research revealed one 2009 Session Law on self-renewing contracts.  See 2009 Minn. Sess. Law Serv. Ch. 94 (H.F. 1122).  The relevant portion of the Omnibus Agriculture and Veterans Affairs Bill provides that benefits contracts […]