Legal Question in Business Law in California
A Signed, Certified Return Receipt Becomes a Contract
I signed a regular contract with a storage company and several months later decided that storage was becoming too expensive. I didn't have any alternative but to dispose of the merchandise. I then sent the storage company Certified, Return Receipt Letter Giving them the keys to the storage and permission to dispose of the merchandise, except for a large # of Boxed Business Records that we would pick-up. They were to contact us when they were ready for us to pick up the Records and we included our contact information again (although they had this information on file) I received the signed return receipt and 2 weeks later received a letter from the storage company stating they had moved everything and included a Bill. We paid the bill and went to pick up the Boxed Records, but were told that it was too costly to separate so they were ''put on a truck''. We had no Insurance and the storage company maintains that our original contract states they are not responsible for the loss. My Question is: Doesn't the
Certified Letter with A signed Return Receipt become a contract that supercedes the original contract AND what California Law Code could I refer to under Contract Law?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: A Signed, Certified Return Receipt Becomes a Contract
The short answer to your question is no, the return receipt does not become a contract, nor does it supercede the original contract you signed with the storage company. A contract requires an "offer," acceptance, consideration and a lawful purpose. Moreover, there must be "a meeting of the minds" of the parties before a contract can exist. Merely signing for a certified letter does not constitute a "meeting of the minds," since the person signing has no idea what is contained in the letter, and could not possibly agree to its contents.
All of that having been said, you should take the original contract to an attorney in your area to determine what your rights and obligations are, as well as the rights and obligations of the storage company.
Re: A Signed, Certified Return Receipt Becomes a Contract
No. You can't impose your contract terms on the other 'party' to the 'contract' by serving them with a notice of your proposed terms. Your certified letter would be considered a mere offer, and the storage company's actions would amount to a rejection of your offer.
Further, your certified letter would probably also be regarded by a judge as notice of your intention to breach the original storage contract, since some parts of your letter undoubtedly stated your intent to act contrary to the contract. This 'anticipatory breach' might excuse the storage company's further performance under the contract and give them grounds for suit or other remedies.
Finally, the storage company's rights and self-help remedies in dealing with abandoned goods are limited by statute. Generally, they must notify the (former) occupant with a preliminary lien notice, then, if no opposition is made by the occupant, they can conduct an advertised auction in a 'commercially reasonable manner. The provisions of law are too lengthy to describe in detail here. You might want to review them in Business and Professions Code sections 21701 through 21715.
Whatever else may have happened, if the storage company violated the law (i.e., the B&P Code) you would have a good chance of winning in small-claims court.
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