Business Contracts "implied contract"

[Buddhapi]

I think I'm in a good legal position but want to throw it out there anyway..

This would apply to Florida.
I have a client that wants his deposit back after disappearing for a year.. heres a quick run down.

I submitted a proposal, which outline the scope/cost of project, also included a line of 50% non-refundable deposit required. ( have date of when it was created)
Client replied via email ( which I have) that he would review with his partner, if it was acceptable I would get the deposit.
I received the deposit and started the project, sent him an email explaining what i needed to complete the project. Couple weeks later after hearing nothing I called him and he informed me it would not be until March ( this was Dec.) until he would be ready to proceed. we agreed that he would contact me at that time and that i did not have to waste time following up with him continually. This was verbal so no record exists.
Never heard from him again until last week when I learned he wants his deposit back.. I still have everything I did on his project on my servers ( I'm a web developer), as well as a record of when the web hosting was set-up.
Initially I was entertaining making a one time goodwill offer of 250.00 refund, but have since rethought this, and don't want to return any portion of it, being Ithink I have an "implied contract" not to mention it's been over 1 year... any thought would be aprreciated!!

Bob

 

[mightymoose]

It is a petty amount for either of you to go to court for.
You don't have to refund anything unless a judge orders you to.
He is probably not going to bother with court over $250.
If he does try to sue, do yourself a favor and refund the deposit minus a fair amount for any work actually done (it sounds like you really didn't do much).

 

[Buddhapi]

the deposit was 900.00, I was going to offer 250.oo as a goodwill gesture..sorry if I was not clear

 

[army judge]

the deposit was 900.00, I was going to offer 250.oo as a goodwill gesture..sorry if I was not clear

Still a very small amount of money.

You don't have an implied contract.

No need for me to explain why, you just don't have one.

Try to avoid ruffling feathers, and consider what Moose said, offer him something.

Why?

Because, what have you done to deserve $900?

Again, don't answer here, this is what you'll need to explain to a court, if he sues you.

Personally, I don't bother going after money I've paid, deposit or not.

But, this makes some people crazy.

If some (or all) of the $900 is important to you, describe how you used the $900 to justify keeping it.

Personally, from what you have said, you didn't do anything but wait to here back from him.

Email communications aren't contractual commitments.

Do yourself a favor, do the right thing, the thing you would want done for yourself.

 

[Buddhapi]

Thanx for your input...That is exactly why I was entertaining offering a partial refund of 250.00, as not only has the hosting been in place for 1 yr. I also invested roughly 5 hours of coding / programming, and design work, for all intents and purposes the only items needed to complete the project were his content and product info..Again thanx for your time.

 

[fredrikklaw]

Not a dime is owed to the client!

BUDHAPPI:

If you really must make a token refund or offer in mitigation other forms of goodwill gestures, first of all make sure there is a writing this time the title of which should be Mutual Recession the implied contract previously entered into by the parties, and also that the Mutual Recession supersedes any and all previously agreed to contractual obligations, releasing you both from any further performance.

Now, I said if you really must make a refund or offer some other good will gesture, because you do not have to do anything and are not contractually obligated to the client in any shape or form. I would even go so far as to say that it is you who should be pursuing the client for redress, not the other way round. Making a refund is a moral judgment call which is yours alone to make, but as far as and strictly speaking contract law, it is the client who has squarely breached the contract and as such has not an iota of a cause for redress against you. None! Nothing!

The second you received the deposit check, an Implied in Law Contract was formed between you with one of the terms being the non-refundable deposit, which does not even bear your having to defend your position on. Because the definition of the word conveying the obvious, notwithstanding, a deposit is also universally understood by even the least legal savvy individual to be an instrument which guards against one party suffering a detrimental, reliance damage while preventing the other party from being unjustly enriched, financially or otherwise, which is exactly what this client will be if you were to refund to him even a dime.

Places traded, I would not only not entertain for a second a red cent in way of a refund, I would also make sure the client understands that the cause rests in me to commence legal proceedings and that I will do just that if he persists with his claim for a return of deposit after one year of being on the hook.

fredrikklaw