Legal Question in Technology Law in California

Re: cancellation of contract by email

You can't just "cancel" a contract after you sign it and deliver the signed document to the other party. (There are rare exceptions where a "cooling off period" or "rescission period" is provided by statute). However, if you are sued over this contract, the fact that you signified your desire to withdraw and/or your intention not to hold up your end of the bargain can be raised as a defense to the non-breachinh party's claims for damages.

For example, if I contract with you to paint my house, then change my mind before you start to paint and tell you NOT to paint my house, I have breached the contract, but your damages will probably be limited to what you paid for custom-mixed paint and profits from work you had to turn down because you had committed the time to doing the job for me. Further, if the paint were not a custom color and could be returned for a credit, I'd be entitled to expect you to return the paint and reduce your damage claim by the credit given by the paint store.

Similar reasoning would be applied to other contract situations. A contracts plaintiff is only entitled to the damages he can establish as unavoidable consequences of the defendant's breach. The plaintiff's lost-profits damages are awarded, for example, only to the extent he lost other jobs or sales because of the breach, and not simply because the expected to make $X from the deal with the defendant.

So, your attempt to cancel doesn't bring about a cancelation, but it does act to limit the damages the plaintiff can recover.