Ground Air Transfer, Inc. D/B/A Charter One v. Westates Airlines, Inc. And Jesse Yohanan

BREYER, Circuit Judge.

The two parties before us — Westates and Charter One — signed a “charter air service” contract. As the contract required, Charter One arranged for a bank to issue a $50,000 “standby” letter of credit in Wes-tates’ favor, a letter designed, in part, to make certain Westates would not suffer harm should Charter One fail to carry out its contractual obligations. See generally Itek Corp. v. First National Bank of Boston, 730 F.2d 19, 24 (1st Cir.1984) (explaining the purpose of the standby credit); J. Dolan, The Law of Letters of Credit 111.04, at 1-12 to 1-15 (1984 &…