When I re-read this carefully, I get the feeling an analogy might work: "You see, your honor, I meant to pay my bill at the restaurant, but they threw me out o

When I re-read this carefully, I get the feeling an analogy might work: "You see, your honor, I meant to pay my bill at the restaurant, but they threw me out on the sidewalk before I had a chance to pay it." As in, one of the two parties might have been genuinely interested in signing such documents, and one of the two parties might have had reasons to want to avoid letting the other one sign those documents.