Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Minor Signature and Cancelled Check

I don't agree with what some of the other attorneys have said. Here are some points that they may have overlooked:

1. Your future daughter-in-law could have canceled the contract because she was a minor, but the fact is that she didn't. She paid at the door, they let her attend, and the contract has been performed. Because she is a minor she could still sue for a refund, but seeking a refund is not the same thing as stopping payment on a check.

2. You are not your future daughter-in-law, and the protections she has under the law do not apply to you. The fact that she can get out of this contract if she wants does not mean you can make this decision unilaterally.

3. The young woman has not demanded a refund, as far as I can tell, and neither has a parent or legal guardian. Therefore the contract remains in effect and company is entitled to its money unless and until one of these people demands a refund.

4. Unless there are some very unusual facts you have not mentioned, you are not her legal guardian.

5. You wrote a check and it was cashed by its intended payee. The check has a legal existence of its own apart from the original contract, and it legally obligates you to pay the underlying debt.

6. The money-back guarantee is surely written someplace and it is not entirely clear that the company has breached. For example, the guarantee may say that the student will stop smoking after attending the seminar and completing an additional period of home study. It is also possible that the young woman did not fulfil some other requirement of the program. The fact that she was smoking right after the seminar does not prove that they company had breached when you canceled the check.

7. The prvious answer that presumed you lent your future in-law the money is wrong, since she never had the funds. It sounds like you wrote a check to the company rather than to the girl (though your question is not clear on this point) and all she did was give it to them. Since you made a payment to the company and not a loan to the young woman, the loan analysis is not on point.

8. As far as the cost of the seminar, this is probably a case that can be settled out of court. But the issue of the blot on your credit is a different matter. What it says is that you groundlessly stopped payment on a check you were obligated to honor, and from where I sit that seems to be true. I think you are out of luck on that point, but you may be able to get the company to retract its reports to the credit bureaus as part of the settlement. You may have to accept a lesser cash settlement -- or even make a settlement payment to the company -- in order to make this hapen.

Good luck.

Re: Minor Signature and Cancelled Check

If the cost was under $5,000, sue them in small claims court.

JOEL SELIK

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Re: Minor Signature and Cancelled Check

1) When the contract was signed in 2003, she was, and STILL IS a minor! - that may be a defense because it may make the contract "voidable."

Seminar Company has put a ''smudge'' on my Credit Rating --- why did the company put a smudge on YOUR credit rating? I thought she signed the contract?

Now, I am at a loss as to my next step to prevent further harassment and to remove thier ''mark'' from my TRW. ---- the "mark" may be actionable as libel, and you can get damages.

Re: Minor Signature and Cancelled Check

If you are NOT a party to this contract at issue, and your future daughter-in-law was a minor at the inception of the "contract", not only would the contract be voidable by her as a minor, but YOU would NOT be liable for her performance, or lack thereof, under the contract period, especially if you simply gave her an informal loan to pay for the services at issue. Thus, despite what some unscrupulous credit collection agencies may say or do to initimidate you into paying this unenforceable contractual obligation, YOU do not have to do so and can EASILY have the negative mark(s) removed ASAP from your credit report(s), especially with proper legal guidance or representation herein. If you would like our very affordable assistance here, contact us directly today.