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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   32065 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 31, 2022

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This situation is exactly what the "Statute of Frauds" is for. For real estate contracts, usually including leases, what's on paper is supposed to be what counts. One problem with doing it otherwise and trying to read the minds of the parties is it's very easy for the judge to apply the "you should have known" rule or the "this is what's on paper" rule depending on which party it favors.

But I do get the sense that it is going to be about 90% in favor of the company.

I think @ymeskhout's original article said 94-99% in favor of the company.

I really don't get the outcome of her case, it frustrated me that they could just throw out the contract as written in favor of the person that wrote the contract. At that point why even bother having my mom sign a contract? They treated it more like a "terms of use" agreement. Like unless you move out you agree to whatever the company wants within some "reasonable" restrictions of what the company can ask for.

Have you not been to court? The laws on paper really don't matter until you're at a fairly high level (and have a lawyer). At the low levels, everyone in the system knows what's supposed to be and will brook no argument. The defendant is always guilty; the corporation is always right.

I've luckily not been in court very much, but that incident has certainly brought me that level of cynicism about things.

The annoying thing about this incident is that the cost of hiring a lawyer was probably going to be most of the cost of paying for the garage.

You're right about the intent behind "statute of frauds" although minor quibble is that it only applies to rental agreements longer than a year. But even where SoF does not apply by default, any contract can include something similar through an "integration clause" that says nothing outside the four corners of this written agreement counts (e.g. oral modification, or some other verbal promise).

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