Legal Question in Business Law in California

You may not need a high-priced attorney for this one, just someone with business-dispute experience and the interest and willingness to give this case his or her full attention when required.

At first glance, this looks like a situation where there are both contract and tort causes of action (a/k/a counts or charges) that could be brought--rescission of contract for failure of consideration, breach of contract, negligent and/or intentional misrepresentation and fraud.

An aggressive approach might also call for asking for some kind of prejudgment relief, such as getting a writ of attachment on the assets of the franchise business. One has to wonder what the business owners have done with the money you gave them.

Another point that is worth mentioning is that if there are close family or personal relationships that result in a situation of trust and the trust is violated, there may additional legal arguments to be made based upon the breach of trust.

Whether the oral contract is enforceable or not may not be an important issue; you are not trying to enforce the contract, you are trying to get your money back.

I maintain offices in Santa Clara County, and have served as a Judge Pro Tem and Judical Arbitrator there for many years. I also happen to have handled a case almost exactly like yours just a few years ago. The only differences from what you describe so far is that that it did not involve family, but otherwise the case sounds almost exactly the same. We obtained a six figure judgement for our client in that case. Of course we cannot guarantee results in any case, but if you would like a free consultation in our San Jose office to determine whether I would be the appropriate attorney to help you, please email me or give me a call to make an appointment.

Besides the other two answers, another approach is to get the franchise company involved. What the family member did was, according to their own statement, contrary to the terms of the franchise agreement. So, essentially they have breached their franchise agreement with the franchise company - the assignment provisions. You may be able to get the franchise company to put pressure on the family member to refund what you paid, instead of getting a franchise attorney involved.

Kevin B. Murphy, M.B.A., J.D. - Mr. Franchise

Franchise Attorney