My jurisdiction is: Oregon
For many months a friend of mine let me borrow a bike of his when we rode together. Then we agreed that I should pay him for the use of the bike until I bought one of my own. I told him that could be years off. He asked me to give him $300.
So I wrote him a check for $300 and on the memo line I clearly put our verbal agreement into writing just to be sure we were on the same page. I put this in writing because this friend had a habit of changing his mind more than most folks.
In the memo line I wrote, (Unconditional use of "the name that we used for the bike" If John (that's me) ever disposes bike, he must return to Bob) Bob read the check and summarily signed and cashed it.
Then, several months later, as luck would have it, Bob got angry with me about something unrelated and decided he wanted his bike back. I told him I could not afford to buy a bike and that his signature on the check constitued an agreement between us. I told him that eventually down the road I would have saved up enough money to get my own bike and as the memo line said, I would dispose of the bike by giving it back to him.
My question is that if Bob goes so far as to take me to small claims court to try to recover his old bike, can I rely on that check as proof of a contract?
For many months a friend of mine let me borrow a bike of his when we rode together. Then we agreed that I should pay him for the use of the bike until I bought one of my own. I told him that could be years off. He asked me to give him $300.
So I wrote him a check for $300 and on the memo line I clearly put our verbal agreement into writing just to be sure we were on the same page. I put this in writing because this friend had a habit of changing his mind more than most folks.
In the memo line I wrote, (Unconditional use of "the name that we used for the bike" If John (that's me) ever disposes bike, he must return to Bob) Bob read the check and summarily signed and cashed it.
Then, several months later, as luck would have it, Bob got angry with me about something unrelated and decided he wanted his bike back. I told him I could not afford to buy a bike and that his signature on the check constitued an agreement between us. I told him that eventually down the road I would have saved up enough money to get my own bike and as the memo line said, I would dispose of the bike by giving it back to him.
My question is that if Bob goes so far as to take me to small claims court to try to recover his old bike, can I rely on that check as proof of a contract?
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