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Verbal Contract

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by c5553277

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My friend has a furniture wholesale company. A friend of his approached hime eight months ago saying hw is interested to learn about furniture business and offered to work for the company without pay. My friends accepted the offer and let him work for two months. At that point my friend's company was about to open another office in different city. The guy offered again to relocate and help setting up the office. This time he was asking for $3,000 of salary. My friend didn't agree on the amount but he did promise to pay him soem money. The he guy moved and stay in that city for 3 months. Now he is sueing my friend for breeching verbal contract and pursuing payment of $15,000. Is this a ligitmate case? What should my friend do.

7 replies

by hal 9000

As this is going to boil down to a He Said, I said Battle in Court get a Legal Representative who specialises in this area of the Law.

As for the person suing I don't think that it is unreasonable to expect some form of payment for 3 months involved in moving away from home and working as well as the expenses involved in living in a different area to home. As there by your account was no firm price agreed to by both parties I would tend to think that the Plaintiff in this case if they have a well documented case laid out will most likely win as they are the one out of pocket and do not look like they are expecting something for nothing. Where as your friend appears to be the person unwilling to pay for the expenses involved in opening another branch whatever and seems to want to get this for free as by your admission so far no money has as yet changed hands. Even Slaves where given a place to live and Food but in this case unless something was agreed to prior with witnesses around this will look to a court like something worse than a form of Slavery.

Col

by c5553277

the guy is reasonable to ask for some form of payment. However, it has not been agreed upon how much, and he is now asking for $15,000 which is a lot. On top of that, my friend did pay him car rental and gas $2000 a month for 3 months and the guy said he can stay in his daughter's house that is not going to cost him anything. My friend paid him $2,500 for consulting feet about a month ago and new he is paying him another $3000 as the final payment of the guy's service. I think my friend has been paying him fairly. Thoughts?

by hal 9000

As the person will be getting paid $11,500.00 for 3 months work that sounds reasonable particularly with accommodation thrown in for good measure which is worth several K more.

Actually the complete remuneration package sounds awfully close to the 15K mark if not actually exceeding that amount.

But the fact of the matter is that while 15 K sounds like a lot of money when you involve the Legal Shysters that soon becomes a pittance when cost are added on.

This should be discussed with some form of [b]Legal Representative[/b] and then if it is felt that it's not worth pursuing perhaps some compromise can be reached in an [b]Out of Court Settlement[/b] which should be made on Economic lines as to what the costs would be if your friend was to loose the case.

No matter what else there will be a need to seek [b]Legal Advice[/b] which will not come cheap and your friend is not only going to have to provide proof of the payments and living arraignments which may not have been accepted for whatever reason but also any witnesses that there may be. Then work out the costs involved in defending the matter and if it works out cheaper to settle just pay the money but I would at this stage drop the 3K payment as it is unwarranted.

Col

by bob_steel

I'd say the limit of your friend's liability would be a respectable salary for 3 months plus reasonable moving expenses. Presuming of course he did some work that would otherwise be done by a regular employee?

If this guy has been working and your friend has been seeing some benefit - your friend will have to cough up.

Not sure what costs are like where you are but I'd wave ?5,000 in foldables under his nose and tell the the guy he either takes that and settles, or he sees you in court and may get nothing.

by dspeacock

Keeping in mind that I am NOT an attorney, it has been my experience that while verbal contracts are generally binding, there is sometimes a reluctance on the part of the court to get involved (except for Judge Judy)

Then there is the statement by one of the Supremem Court justices years ago that" verbal contracts aren't worth the paper they're written on"

by w2ktechman

have been renewing verbal contracts as binding contracts. It depends on where you live.
I am not an attorney, nor have I studied law, this is just soemthing that I read within the last few years.

Your friend should have never agreed to such terms though. It puts any employer in a bad position and can cause legal headaches He may have been doing this person a favor, but he should have 'hired' him instead. I think it all depends on the state/city etc. as to how this will turn out. But I would say, look for legal advice from an attorney that specializes in this kind of thing.

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