Since the advent of email, and the prevalence of doing business over email, the disappearance of mail and the fax machine, everyone wonders and hopes that they can do business faster, more efficiently, and with less paper! (I'm not sure this has anything to do with the environment, but if it saves the environment at the same time, I don't think anyone will complain!)

But if it doesn't explicitly say in your contract that e-mail is considered acceptable written form, then well, does it count as notice?

Minnesota's Surpreme Court recently stated a big fat...No!

In Valspar Refinish, Inc. v. Gaylords, Inc., the Minnesota Supreme Court stated a contract provision requiring that intent to terminate be provided in writing 60 days before termination is not satisfied by an e-mail expressing one party's displeasure with the others performance.

The court held:

"[T]he parties' agreement did not allow for e-mail notice, and even if it had, the content of [the defendant's] e-mail notice lacked sufficient detail to satisfy the notice requirement," the court said. "[T]he agreement requires that all notices be in writing and hand-delivered or mailed with proof of delivery," the court said, and "the e-mail does not indicate that a default has occurred, much less describe a default in sufficient detail to give [the painter] an opportunity to cure."

Short answer...read your contract, and if you want e-mail to serve as valid notice...write it in there.  If it isn't in the contract, more than likely a court will not allow e-mail to serve as written notice.

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