Consumer Law, Warranties No Written Contract

[BM09]

My jurisdiction is: new york

2 yrs ago Temple assigned Bar Mitzvah date. I never signed off on that date. 9/08 I requested a different date. 12/08 Temple verbally ok'd the date change. 3 days after that I found a restaurant for the party. A couple of days later received a voice message from Temple saying that I have legal obligations to have the party there with inhouse caterer because the Temple & caterer have a contract stating that members who have a religious service there must have the party there as well. I was never given anything in writing nor told of this until this voice message. I can not afford caterer's pricing. I never signed any agreement with Temple nor caterer. During this back & forth with the Temple, caterer booked a wedding for the date that was verbally assigned to me. I'd like to know where I legally stand with this situation.

 

[dee_dub]

You have a verbal agreement, which might be enforceable, to have your bar mitzvah at Temple at a certain date. You are not bound by the Temple/caterer contract, but it might be a condition of your agreement with Temple that you are obliged to hire the caterer if you have your bar mitzvah there. If the caterer is unavailable, you would presumably be free to use someone else.

 

[BM09]

The caterer book that wedding behind my back. Although the caterer is not available because of this wedding booking, the Temple will not allow the Bar Mitzvah services that same day because the wedding party will be taking picture in the sanctuary. Inspite of my arguement that the religious service very early in the am & only 1 1/2hrs long, they said no.

 

[dee_dub]

So what is it you would like to do?

 

[BM09]

At this point I want to know if I have legal rights to the changed date that the Temple gave me verbally & also if I do have legal rights to that changed date, I'd like to know if the Temple is right or wrong about me having legal obligations to the caterer.

 

[dee_dub]

See my reply above, then. The answer to both is "maybe".

Maybe you and Temple never have had a binding agreement in the first place. What do you need to do to book Temple for your bar mitzvah? They assigned you a date - does that mean they agreed to let you have Temple on that date? Or is that a preliminary step, before you enter into a binding contract?

If you did have a binding agreement for the original date, and they verbally OK'd a new date, then you have a right to have your bar mitzvah there on the new date but it may be exceedingly difficult to prove that in court.

You would only have legal obligations to the caterer if those obligations are somehow incorporated in your agreement with Temple. Maybe you don't have legal obligations to the caterer per se but you might have an obligation to Temple to only use the caterer they specify.