Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Texas

HI, I recently sold a "Almost complete, Project car" AS-IS to a man I met on craigslist. I described the car as Almost complete, project car in the first line of the ad. The bill of sale also states As-is. The man came, checked it out, test drove it, thought about it for a day and came back and bought the car. 4 days later, He sends me an email saying the car is leaking oil and he wants his money back. I know he had 3 days to cancel, but its been 4 days after the day of sale(tue-sat). He said he is going to take me to court. Does he have a case? And should I get a lawyer for small claims court if I cant afford to lose?


Asked on 11/01/10, 3:06 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

The question that would loom is: What is reasonable to the incoming buyer? I would inquire as to what he did in order to "check out" the car. Did he take it to his own mechanic? There is an argument to make on your end that it would be reasonable for the buyer to run a thorough check on the car and take it to a mechanic prior to buying, especially if there was no term in your agreement stating that he could not get it checked out by a third party prior to buying. In "property" terms there is the rule of 'caveat emptor', which translates to buyer beware.

Furthermore, if your agreement allowed for 3 days to cancel, I believe a court could find that that is enough time for him to have taken it into a mechanic and gotten it checked out properly.

Even if he has a case, you have defenses.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to give our office a call or email us:

Mentlewski Paranjpe Law Group, PLLC

832-667-7700

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Answered on 11/11/10, 8:41 am


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