Legal Question in Civil Litigation in New York
Fraud in the Inducement
Party A(the buyer)is in a real estate sales contract with Party B(the seller). At their closing, Party B purosely makes misrepresentations of fact to Party A. Based on these misrepresentations(Party A did not know them to be false at the time), Party A agrees to sign a hand-written ''Termination Agreement'', in the presence of both of their attorneys. This agreement simply stated that ''Party A and Party B agree to terminate the contract at that date without any further action or liability of the parties''. Party A now beleives that they were unfairly and fraudulently induced into signing that agreement. Do they have a case, as a matter of law?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Fraud in the Inducement
Actual fraud or misrepresentation is a valid claim to invalidate a signed agreement, whether hand-written or otherwise. since you have not given me facts that tell me what was being terminated it is difficult to say for certain.
Re: Fraud in the Inducement
Dear Reader:
In examining this response, please note that we are not entering into an attorney/client relationship, that this is to be taken as informative, and not as legal advice, that it is always best to speak to a lawyer in your area and/or in the area where the transaction and/or events occurred, and that my answer is necessarily limited by the fact that I have not seen the documentation or had an opportunity to go over the matters with you in detail.
That said, at first blush, it seems like you have a case, but I don't have enough details to make an assessment. As the previous response noted, the deception had to be crucial to the decision to tear up the old contract, and you will have to prove how the misinformation changed your mind.
There is also the matter of what you would want to get out of a case. Do you want to go through with the contract and buy? Is the house now worth more than before, so there would be profit in going through with the deal? Would there be enough left over to pay legal fees?
As I mentioned before, this is something that you will want to take up with a lawyer of your own selection, either in your state or area or in a place where some of the pertinent events occurred.
Rod Kovel
Attorney at Law
516-312-9900
Related Questions & Answers
Looking for something else?
10,200 active attorneys ready to answer your legal questions today.
Featured Attorneys
Earn additional revenue and grow your business.
