Legal Question in Consumer Law in Texas

broken verbal agreement

I answered an ad in the paper for a wooden playset for sale. I saw it & called her back & offered her $400. She agreed & said it was mine. She was headed out of town for the weekend & said she would call me Sunday night or Monday morning & I could come & pay her then. The next day she called me & said that she decided to go ahead and sell it to a later caller on her ad. Who agreed to pay her $600.

I feel that we had an agreement & it was a very good deal for me. Do I have any recourse against her for breaking our agreement?


Asked on 12/18/06, 9:38 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Re: broken verbal agreement

Oral contracts are valid but to be enforceable they must pass the Statute of Frauds requirement in Texas. In a real basic nutshell it should be under $500 dollars and not be something that will take more than a year to complete. When it comes to real estate it MUST be in writing.

If you feel you have to resolve this then you can file a claim/lawsuit with small claims/Justice of the Peace/JP courts in Texas. In doing so you will need to explain to the court what happened, include any emails, ads etc and explain how you were damaged, be it lost opportunity, etc and being that JP courts are courts of equity discuss what you are claiming to make things right. For example, if you felt she was unjustly enriched by breaking your oral contract and selling it to the next person then you claim you should be entitled to the additional $200 profit that she obtained by breaching your agreement of $400.

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Answered on 12/18/06, 10:16 am


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