Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Sold the business, got paid, and the buyer did'nt want it anymore

In my opinion, you are likely to lose.

Either your oral contract is valid, in which case the equipment belonged to the first buyer and wasn't yours to resell, or it was invalid, in which case the first 'buyer' was entitled to a refund, possibly less some of your expenses.

The small claims court won't let you keep the money from the first sale and also resell the equipment to a second buyer.

Re: Sold the business, got paid, and the buyer did'nt want it anymore

As you said yourself, you "sold" your business, and the "buyer" paid for it. The first answer that one would give is that, unfortunately, you can't have it both ways. You can't have the business and the buyer's money.

Even if the buyer did, actually, abandon the business, it would not have been abandoned to you, the former owner who had been fully paid, and who, thus, had no further interest in the business.

The only possible way that I can see to support your claim of the buyer having abandoned the business to you, would be if there was some provision within the terms of the contract to provide for such an event, e.g. if, in the event the buyer did not take possession of the equipment within a certain period of time. With a verbal contract, this would be very difficult to prove unless you had very credible, unbiased witnesses.

Seeing as the buyer is taking you to Small Claims Court, most Small Claims Courts have a mediator present whose job it is to try to facilitate a compromise settlement. Frankly, I don't think you have much of a chance, but if you attempted to mediate the claim, you might get the buyer to at least compromise his amount of the claim.

I wish you the best of luck.