Legal Question in Business Law in Oregon

5 years and 6 months ago i signed a contract with a man to cut some of my trees...he paid me for the trees but i never heard from him again (i heard that his son commited suicide and he wasnt able to cope well) yesterday, i received a letter from his wife who says that he is incarcerated (i researched - 18 years for rape 1) and that she now owns his lumber business but doesnt want the trees (i researched - she sold off all of his lumber equiptment). I signed the agreement with "him" and it states that he only wanted "marketable" trees - which we agreed upon to be a particular type. I am worried that "marketable" is a vague term and a sort of verbal agreement of what was martketable to him at that time! does a contract lapse in oregon after a period of time? what is reasonable on my part in "waiting" 5+ years for him to cut the trees? (which are now older and worth more). Thanks in advance!


Asked on 5/21/11, 10:51 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Daniel Meek Daniel W. Meek

"Marketable" with specifications is probably not at all too vague for your contract to be valid.

You have not breached the contract. You were paid and made your "marketable" trees available to be cut and removed.

Did the contract specify a time period for the cutting and removal to be done? If so, and the cutting and removal did not happen, then you are quite likely entitled to keep the money and the trees. If no time period was specified, then the wife likely still has the right to cut the marketable trees (probably the ones that were marketable at the time of the contract--more may be marketable now because they have grown over the past 5.5 years).

You can tell the wife that she can sell her right to those trees to someone else, unless the contract banned "assignment" of the right to cut and remove the trees. She can recoup some money that way. Or you could buy back the rights to your trees for some sum.

Or you could claim that husband breached the contract by failing to cut the trees within the specified time or within a reasonable time. But the possible remdies for breach would not help you. One remedy is recission of the contract, but then you would owe wife back the money that husband paid you. One remedy is damages, but you were already paid for the trees and thus have not suffered monetary damages.

It is up to wife to sue you to get the money back, and she most likely cannot prove that you breached the contract. After all, do did nothing to stop husband from cutting the trees.

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Answered on 5/22/11, 4:25 am


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