“[C]ommon law courts have recognized the necessity of learning how people usually talk and what they usually mean by their language before one interprets their contracts…. ‘[C]ourse of performance’ refers to a pattern of performance of the contract that is the subject of the dispute, as contrasted to ‘course of dealing’ which refers to the pattern of performance in prior contracts between the same parties.” Claude Rohwer & Gordon D. Schaber, Contracts in a Nutshell 171–73 (4th ed. 1997).
“The phrase ‘course of performance’ relates to the way the parties have acted in performance of the particular contract in question. The judicial inquiry on this point is limited to the way the parties have acted in carrying out the particular contract that is in controversy, as distinguished from a general pattern of dealing that may embrace many other contracts or transactions between the parties.” Ronald A. Anderson, Uniform Commercial Code § 1-205:74 (1997).
