You hire your friend Ralph to trim some trees for you. He looks at the job, and

Question

You hire your friend Ralph to trim some trees for you. He looks at the job, and says he'll do it for $1500.00. He's a good worker, and you know he's an honest guy because he bought your used pickup a few months ago. You're short on cash, so you suggest that you'll pay him $500 cash when he's done, and he can deduct $500 from his next truck payment to you. You also remind Ralph that you volunteered to help him build his deck last summer, and that work should be worth at least another $500.00. Ralph starts the job, and then tells you that some of the limbs are too high and he's going to have to rent a bucket truck to get at them, at an additional cost of $500. You reluctantly agree.

1. Do you and Ralph have an enforceable contract for $1500? Explain.
2. What if you decide not to pay Ralph the additional $500 for the bucket truck? Would Ralph win a lawsuit against you? Explain.
3. What if Ralph decides he wants $500 cash from you instead of deducting that amount for your help with his deck? Would Ralph win in a lawsuit against you? Explain.

Explanation / Answer

Answer 1:- Enforceable contract is an agreement between 2 parties/persons mutually agreed that can be enforcable/imposed in court of law. If the enforcement of a contract is permitted by law, execution of term & conditions mentioned in the agreement had to be followed by the engaged parties.
Ralph has bought my pickup few months ago so we do have the paperwork done for this in order to make Ralph the legal owner of pickup. I had a contract with Ralph. Whereas Ralph has not made any paperwork/ agreement prior start working for me & stated an amount 1500 USD. Ralph is bound to pay back the 500$ against pickup.
Another scenario wherein I have volunteered the Deck building for Ralph for 500$; questions arises, did we had any paperwork for this this work? If we do have a contract in place for this then again I can legally ask Ralph for this piece of 500$ as well whereas if i did it without any contract in place, then i cannot ask legal to help in this case; best way out would be to negotiate here in case Ralph does not agree.
Scenario three:- Ralph comes again with an additiona cost 500$, if he makes the paper work for this entire piece of work, then even he would also be able to ask legally his amount of money.

Gist is, if every transaction that has happened between me & Ralph has necessarily paprework done & contract/agreement in place then yes we both have an ENFORCEABLE CONTRACT in place. But in case any of the transaction mentioned in above scenario does not hold relevant documents that particular transaction can not be claimed/enforced for legally, although the pricing can always be negotiated.

Answer 2:-
Lawsuit means any dispute/ fights/ claims/ that arised between 2 people/companies/ parties/etc brought under law/court to have a fair judgement on the matter. In order to file a Lawsuit, the person should hire a lawyer, draft & file a complain againt the opponent & finally serves a summon/ notice to the other party. After this the applicant should/must have all the relevant documents/ witnesses/ agreement/ that are valid under law. & then the lawyer does theor reasearch & proceedings happen in the court.
So in our scenrio if Ralph has made me sign a contract/agreement for the additional 500$ & I have also signed the document then Ralph can submit the documentation & legally I would have to pay him the assured amount. Hence Ralph would WIN the lawsuit against me.

Whereas if ralph misses to do so, he misses the documentation part of this extra work in the agreement, then Ralph cannot claim legally this amount in law of court since there is no documentation related to this.

Answer 3:-

Since the deck building was done voluntarly by me & i kind of helped him, i might have forgotten then & no paperwork might have done. Also no witnessess would be there except me & Ralph since it was done as goodwill gesture. Now when i am short on cash & i have to adjust my amount that is due with Ralph, unless i had any documents/witnesses i cannot claim/enforce this amount to Ralph & hence he has complete chances of winning the lawsuit against me.

Whereas if by any chance i hold any doc which has a contract mentioning about this monetary transaction between us; i can legally enforce the amount from Ralph under the court of law.

Rather explaning above the legal aspect, since the relationship between us was good & even Ralph is an honest man, things could be settled/negotiated with the consent of both the parties outside the law as well. This will save our time, efforts, relationship & yes offcourse the money as well.

Thanks

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