I made a verbal agreement with a friend for him to buy some household products from me. He took the products and then, 20 days later after using some of them, decided he didn't want to pay me (he was supposed to pay within 30 days). I found out that his new girlfriend wants to get something different for his place. He is now claiming that since it is a verbal agreement and nothing is in writing, he can do whatever he wants. Is this true? I can't imagine it is. Either way, he can go to hell and I just want to know if I can sue him in court if he won't pay me back.
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Consumer Law, Warranties verbal agreements valid?
- Thread Starter rachel
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Simply because an agreement was not in writing when it may be "required" under the "Statute of Frauds" does not mean it is not enforceable. Many people make the mistake that simply because you orally or verbally agreed to, e.g. pay for a car, if the agreement wasn't in writing they can simply keep the car. This is an absurd conclusion! In my example, a writing that assigns ownership of the car to another person could be sufficient to prove the existence of an agreement.
A memorandum or other written evidence will suffice even if there isn't a written contract. Even in the absence of a sufficient memorandum of the existence of an oral contract, such a contract may be enforced where one of the parties admits the existence of a valid oral contract, where the oral promise has been partially performed, or under principles of estoppel. Estoppel is a concept where a party is later "estopped" from denying some type of agreement when that party is aware of an event occurring pursuant to an action and that party does not prevent that act from continuing even though that party knew about the events.
One should look at an oral agreement as a question of proof. Under oath, the other party must tell the truth and if they admit that there was an oral contract, it may be enforced. The statute was created to prevent fraudulent claims from occurring and thus the plaintiff under those claims must bring a high threshhold of proof to rebut the presumption that no contract existed.
Some agreements that may require a writing are contracts that cannot be performed in under a year (2 year lease), dollar amount in excess of $500, surety contracts, marriage, deeds, real estate contracts, and several others. The Statute of Frauds is defined by each state's law.
A memorandum or other written evidence will suffice even if there isn't a written contract. Even in the absence of a sufficient memorandum of the existence of an oral contract, such a contract may be enforced where one of the parties admits the existence of a valid oral contract, where the oral promise has been partially performed, or under principles of estoppel. Estoppel is a concept where a party is later "estopped" from denying some type of agreement when that party is aware of an event occurring pursuant to an action and that party does not prevent that act from continuing even though that party knew about the events.
One should look at an oral agreement as a question of proof. Under oath, the other party must tell the truth and if they admit that there was an oral contract, it may be enforced. The statute was created to prevent fraudulent claims from occurring and thus the plaintiff under those claims must bring a high threshhold of proof to rebut the presumption that no contract existed.
Some agreements that may require a writing are contracts that cannot be performed in under a year (2 year lease), dollar amount in excess of $500, surety contracts, marriage, deeds, real estate contracts, and several others. The Statute of Frauds is defined by each state's law.
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