I have this situation that I don't know if it warrants going to a corporate lawyer. Basically, we took on this contract about a year ago with someone who wanted us to develop some technology. We signed the contract and set it to expire after a few months (it already expired almost 10 months ago!) in thinking that we would have it ready by then. It turns out that the they wanted to add more and more stuff to what needed to be developed and so eventually it became too hard for us to give him what he wanted (which was beyond what the contract stated). I tried to help throughout this year and introduced them to people that could help get the idea off the ground with our help. At the end of August we got really frustrated because they were demanding too much and just delivered to the best of our abilities what we could give them. Now, they want their deposit back ($2k or 50% of our fee for the project) and they're threatening to sew us for $20k. I know it's not a lot of money and hence why I'm hesitant to seek too much legal help (will probably end up costing a lot more).
I'm thinking that they have no claim on this and based on 2 things:
1) Contract expired already and there is nothing about post-contract life unless there is a written notice which there isnt
2) On our contract they had 30 days from the day the product was delivered to make any claim and they didnt.
So here are my questions:
1) If the contract expired almost a year ago, can they have any claim that we "breached the contract" now??
2) If the contract still is valid, if when we delivered in August of this year they didn't say anything, the 30 days to say something passed, and only now (2 months later) wants to claim something, is it valid??
I'm trying to figure out how to respond to the arbirtration letter. Let me know if any of you guys can help me out! Thanks!!
I'm thinking that they have no claim on this and based on 2 things:
1) Contract expired already and there is nothing about post-contract life unless there is a written notice which there isnt
2) On our contract they had 30 days from the day the product was delivered to make any claim and they didnt.
So here are my questions:
1) If the contract expired almost a year ago, can they have any claim that we "breached the contract" now??
2) If the contract still is valid, if when we delivered in August of this year they didn't say anything, the 30 days to say something passed, and only now (2 months later) wants to claim something, is it valid??
I'm trying to figure out how to respond to the arbirtration letter. Let me know if any of you guys can help me out! Thanks!!