Observations from a Court Visit - Contract Law in Action

I remember when I interned at a court, I saw a case where the plaintiff had signed a contract without reading the fine print. The contract included a clause stating that the company could terminate the agreement at any time without notice. Fast forward a year, the company does exactly that and the plaintiff sues for breach of contract. But here's the thing, the court ruled in favor of the company because the clause was indeed there in black and white - the plaintiff should have read it before signing. Our textbooks might have said the 'doctrine of contra proferentem' comes into play when a contract is ambiguous, but what about when the ambiguity is the plaintiff's fault? This is where 'causa non scripta' comes in - lack of due diligence. It's a nuance we rarely discuss in class, but it's a crucial distinction in Indian Contract Law.