Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Minnesota

Re: Breach Verbal Agreement

Several hundred hours out of the goodness of your heart is an awful lot of work not to get some sort of agreement in writing.

It is doubtful whether you can enforce an oral contract for services, but you might be able to recoup the value of your services to your neighbor.

You will definitley need some way to substantiate your work, and one way is to start listing everything that you did; another is to get other naighbors to attest to your on-going work. It would be pretty hard to deny your involvement, since you would have detailed, intimate descriptions of work you performed.

The only question is whether the promise to help your neighbor plus your fulfilling your side of the bargain in reliance upon that promise sufficient to create an enforceable contract. It very possibly is, but you'll need specific legal guidance on this one from your state codes.

It would be an interesting case, so go see a lawyer in your area. it will be a hard one to get on contingency fee basis, but at the least, you should be willing to pay someone to research the question and give you an educated guess as to whether you can get a judge to hear you out.