Legal Question in Business Law in California
I am owed thousands of dollars on business expenses for work I did in Africa for a major oil company. I submitted my expenses 6 months after the contract ended (flights, vaccinations, etc.). The contract between myself and 3rd party (middle man) has no mention of time limit on when expenses needed to be submitted. The Master Agreement contract between 3rd party and the client says "Invoices shall be submitted within 60 days". The client is refusing to pay the expenses due to time. Do I have any legal rights? Is this wording enough to not have to pay expenses? Shouldn't it also have to say "any invoices received after this time will be rejected"?...which it does not. Your help is greatly appreciated.
4 Answers from Attorneys
You should be reimbursed for your expenses, absent any agreement that limited the time in which to submit them.
I agree with Mr. Cohen. Unless you and your client agreed otherwise, the terms of the client's contract with the oil company do not control your relationship with the client. If it never notified you of a 60-day limit, it can't enforce that limit against you.
Bring your demand on the company, and if not paid, bring a claim in the state and locale of the company. If that is SoCal, feel free to contact me for legal help.
First you need to determine where you can bring an action to determine what rights you have. Places for jurisdiction where contract was signed, where defendant has headquarters or principal place of business, and where work was preformed. Assuming you can get jurisdiction in California then the question is who did you have the contract with? If it was with the 3P then demand the money from them. If it was directly with company then you should have reviewed the contract before you signed it and you would be bound by its terms.
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