Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

breach o contract

7 years ago we entered into oral contract for x amount of money for exchange for service, to make a property sellable, due and payable at sale of property.Along the way renegotiated as it would cost more, gave our ok. Because of delay my husband did some labor in exchange for some payment toward balance. End result did not gain us what we were told it would , property still not sellable. At this point my husband says that is all the work he will do as we did not get what we were told his services would accomplish. He says he never told us it would accomplish being able to split our property just a rezoning and we thought rezoning would accomplish the splitability. It has been 5 years of receiving bills and our not acknowledging them and now he is sueing us. Where do we stand as far as oral agreement. And statute of limitations. The last exchange of labor for labor was over 4 years ago almost 5


Asked on 4/26/00, 5:34 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
John Hayes The John Hayes Law Offices

Re: breach o contract

The statute of limitations on a breach of contract cause of action is three years from the date of the breach. Since I have not seen the complaint I cannot tell you when that three years began. What I am assuming is that he is basing it on when you refused to honor his bill. However, this is something that can be determined at a later date when you are determining your defense strategy. The first thing you need to do is file an answer to the complaint with the court within thirty days of being served. If you do not file an answer within the thirty days he can file for a default judgment. This means that you failed to answer the complaint within the allotted time frame and he is then granted a judgment against for the full amount requested in his complaint automatically. The answer needs to be in proper legal form and he needs to be served in order for the court to file it. Your other option is to file a Demurrer if you can prove that he filed the complaint after the statute of limitations expired. In order for me to give you any more advise I would need additional facts from you. I offer free consultations with no obligation to retain my services. You can either email me at [email protected] with a more detail explanation of what the Complaint states, or you can contact my office, toll free at 877-546-9918. I have been having trouble with the toll free number, but the phone company has assured me that it should be working tomorrow. If for some reason you are unable to get through on the 877 number you can email me with your phone number and a good time to call you and I will contact you at your convenience. I look forward to hearing from you. I hope that the delay in my office receiving your message has not cost you to dearly. If you have already hired an attorney, please let me know how things are going. Again, I apologize for the delay I only just received your question this evening. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

John Hayes, Esq.

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Answered on 6/08/00, 6:48 am


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