Mary offered to sell John her antique furniture at a very good price. John could
ID: 426550 • Letter: M
Question
Mary offered to sell John her antique furniture at a very good price. John could not accept the offer at that time, but did give Mary $225 in return for her promise to keep her offer open for an extra three weeks. John returned with the agreed-upon balance one week later to find that Mary already sold the furniture she had offered to sell him. Mary said that because the furniture pieces were all antiques and that she had not heard from John, she sold her furniture to another buyer who was willing to pay more money than John. She offered to return John's $225 plus an additional $50 for the inconvenience and insisted that this was all she was obligated to do. Was Mary right? Please explain why or why not.Explanation / Answer
In an oral contract terms of the agreement are agreed upon between the concerned two parties through oral communication. However if one party makes a promise that causes another party to rely upon that statement in such a way that he suffers financially then court indeed can enforce the promise as if it was a completed contract.
Court in order to enforce the promise like a contract need not necessarily require an agreement or consideration however it is difficult without appropriate record to prove that a promise indeed was made. Furthermore aggrieved party by filing a petition in court it indeed ensures to facilitate with a perception of giving remedy against the person who has broken his promise.
However the detrimental reliance of the promisee on the promise must be reasonable and foreseeable by the promisor at the time of his statement. If the promisee took action that the promisor could not have anticipated then the promisor is not required to keep up the promise. Furthermore if one party partially complied and performed with the terms of the oral agreement or plaintiff completely relied upon defendant’s promise and as a consequence suffered major problem then court may enforce the oral contract.
Law does not support oral contracts but on varied occasions it can be enforced by court. However the burden of providing substantial evidence falls on the plaintiff. Thus one can expect to receive a favorable judgment from court provided it can successfully provide some kind of evidence or documentation like emails, text messages etc, which indeed can act as circumstantial evidence of the existence of an oral contract.