Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California

I live in California and was looking at a horse to purchase from an ad that I responded to.

My husband and I spent most of the afternoon riding & handling this horse. We gave her an verbal offer on the horse that she accepted. We verbally agreed to pick up the horse a date that worked for both partys. During our conversation we told her that we had another horse that we would need to move prior to this horse coming home with us. Unfortunately problems came about on the 3rd day after we made this verbal agreement. We contacted her to apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused, but that we were not going to be able to purchase this horse due to the fact that we were not going to be able to get rid of the other horse. After tell this person this unfortunate news, they reminded us that they were an attorney and that we had made a verbal agreement and that they were going to hold us to our agreement. This person said that if we did not pick up this horse she was going to sue us. The offer on the horse was $2200.00 - With not written agreement of down payment. Can this person hold us to this???


Asked on 3/17/11, 12:56 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

The facts as you describe them would create an enforcable verbal contract that you will breach by not taking the horse. The seller could take you to small claims court and either obtain an order that you pay the money and take the horse, or if she sells the horse to someone else for less, she could obtain an order that you pay the difference, plus the cost of keeping the horse until it the new buyer is found. You do not describe making your offer conditional on your being able to get rid of your other horse. If you had said something like, "We will give you $2200 for the horse, but only if we can get rid of our other horse, and we will confirm within three days whether we can get rid of our other horse," and she had accepted those terms, it would be a contract with a condition precedent. When that condition failed the contract would no longer be in effect. But of course had the conversation gone like that she most likely would have said, "Well, let me know, but in the meantime I'm going to look for other buyers," and there would be no contract rather than form a conditional contract.

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Answered on 3/17/11, 1:35 pm


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