Consumer Law, Warranties Oral Business Contract

[veronica10]

Hi, my daughter and I work for a home health agency. We were approached by the owner of the company last week and we met with her three days. She offered my daughter and I 25% of the business and we accepted her offer. She told us to write a contract, we did and give her a copy of a rough draft of the contract so she could look over it for a 4 day period. She was out of the country and returned today.

She met with my daughter today and said she had talked to her lawyer and he advised her to wait for her divorce to be finalized and many other excuses.
She asked my daughter to give me this information. She changes her stories like the wind.

Is this verbal contract binding?

 

[army judge]

Hi, my daughter and I work for a home health agency. We were approached by the owner of the company last week and we met with her three days. She offered my daughter and I 25% of the business and we accepted her offer. She told us to write a contract, we did and give her a copy of a rough draft of the contract so she could look over it for a 4 day period. She was out of the country and returned today.

She met with my daughter today and said she had talked to her lawyer and he advised her to wait for her divorce to be finalized and many other excuses.
She asked my daughter to give me this information. She changes her stories like the wind.

Is this verbal contract binding?

The biggest problem with any oral contract is proof.
Person "A" will say one thing in court, person "B" will say another.
But, let's say you are able to prove what was said.

You would subsequently have to prove that you had a contract.
All contracts are comprised of an offer and consideration.
Simply put, a promise is made, and consideration is returned.

She, perhaps, made you a promise.
What consideration did you give her?
It can't be the fact that you drafted the contract.
It would have to be money, services, goods, etc...

If she had said, "I'll sell you 25% of my business for $100."
Then you said, "Okay, here's the $100, and I'll draw up a contract."
That would have created an oral contract.
There was a promise and consideration exchanged hands.

Your scenario is absent the exchange of any consideration other than the creation of a document.
Its my legal opinion that no contract existed between the two of you.
I don't want to make this too complicated, but another essential element of a contract seems to be missing.

There appears to never have been a "meeting of the minds".
From what you relate, the other party hasn't seemed to have made up her mind about this deal.
You, on the other hand, are ready to become a minority owner of the business.
Those simple details indicate that a contract hasn't been achieved.