Breach of contract//Do I take the deal?

[Clean_Yogurt_9529]

Jurisdiction

New York

I think I know the answer to my question, but just wanna see if anyone else has any other thoughts or advice...

I was recently sued for $500k for by someone I did some work for earlier this year. This was work-for-hire, freelance work. When my employer's behavior started to become more erratic and harassing than I could handle (I can deal with a fair amount of crazy), I quit. There was never a contract signed (nor one offered), and I was never paid (nor did I submit an invoice). His claim is, and I'm leaving out all the detailed information here for sake of both privacy and speed, that my quitting torpedoed the specific project I was hired to work on and caused $500k damage to the business. Both of things are untrue - the project continued on and the business had it's most profitable event (and year) ever. In fact, the only person who did anything illegal was he himself. Again - not going into detail, but let's just say, after I quit, he did several illegal (or at least inappropriate) things that are well documented (thanks to my lawyer's investigation work).

He also alleged, in the initial complaint filed, that there was a contract and I was paid, but amended the lawsuit hours before the cutoff, and took those points out (we were able to prove that to be a lie in our motion to dismiss.)

I'm dealing with a vengeful, scary, crazy person here who has a lot of cash. He is known-to-be crazy, btw. This isn't new information for anyone in his circle. He's done this before to people. His claim against me is entirely made up and the documentation that both me and him put forth in discovery proves that. It's all very well documented what happened, and my witnesses, should it get that far, are made up of his former #2 and #3 that worked for this person for over 20 years, and quit their jobs just a month ago, because this filing of the lawsuit against me was the final straw. They've reached out to me and volunteered to be a witness in support of me. (His #2 is his own sister, btw)

We had court ordered mediation today. After much back and forth, their final offer was to settle at $100k, which I wanted to take some time to think on. So with that said, here's what I know, followed by my question:

• I did nothing wrong and I sleep happily knowing that. I have full faith that should we go to trial, a jury would find in my favor.
  
  
• I have already spent nearly $100k in legal fees because of this. If I don't take his offer, the next phase is depositions, and it's not until after that that we would file a motion of summary judgement. To get there, it's going to cost me another $100k in legal fees for just the deposition stuff. And if the judge doesn't rule in our favor with that motion, we go to trial. More legal fees...
  
  
• I know, because of who the plaintiff is, that he will spend money to make me spend money. He wants to hurt me as much as possible and make me pay for upsetting him. I know that he will not drop this case. He will just keep suing and suing and suing, and he has the cash to do so. (His lawyer is even more expensive than mine).
  
  
• Even if he loses, he will be happy that he made me spend money.
  
  
• I have the option of paying $100k to end this nightmare right now.
  

So, here's my question. Do I take the obvious and pay $100k to end it right now, or is there another way of looking at this or dealing with this that we're not thinking of? It just seems completely nuts that this guy can get away with this. He fabricated a story from beginning to end, one that is very easily provable by his very own documents, and he gets to talk away with $100k because I didn't want to deal with his bullying?

Is there no way to stop this guy?

 

[mightymoose]

Have you thoroughly explored options to have him pay your legal fees if you prevail?

Since you say there was no contract entered in to then it may not be an option, but if he insists there was then perhaps there is some angle?

 

[Clean_Yogurt_9529]

Have you thoroughly explored options to have him pay your legal fees if you prevail?

Since you say there was no contract entered in to then it may not be an option, but if he insists there was then perhaps there is some angle?

No, there literally was no paper contract. He lied and said there was one, but when we put in our motion to dismiss that there wasn't and we could prove that. So he amended the complaint to say that the contract was verbal. That's not true either, but it's also quite hard for him to prove that. There was no contract/agreement that included terms. There was certainly an agreement to work and a general understanding of what the work was, however no specific terms when it comes to things like this.

 

[adjusterjack]

There was certainly an agreement to work and a general understanding of what the work was,

Duh, that's called an oral contract and is just as enforceable as a written contract. If you quit before you completed your obligations you might have been in breach of contract. Doesn't matter if he had a profitable year, only matters if he spent more money to replace your services than he was originally going to pay you.

Nobody here can tell you to take the deal or not. It's up to you.

Whatever this debacle costs you is your tuition for a life lesson from the school of hard knocks.

Always get a written contract.

And, if there's a problem, get a lawyer before you quit.