Question

The Statute of Frauds. Kendall Gardner agreed to buy from B&C Shavings, a specially built shaving mill to produce wood shavings for poultry processors. B&C faxed an invoice to Gardner reflecting a purchase price of $86,200, with a 30 percent down payment and the “balance due before shipment.” Gardner paid the down payment. B&C finished the mill and wrote Gardner a letter telling him to “pay the balance due or you will lose the down payment.” By then, Gardner had lost his customers for the wood shavings, could not pay the balance due, and asked for the return of his down payment. Did these parties have an enforceable contract under the Statute of Frauds? Explain. [Bowen v. Gardner, 2013 Ark.App. 52, 425S.W.3d 875 (2013)] (See the formation of sales and lease contracts)

Answer 1

In the given case, there was no written document that could be termed as the contract. Both the parties just decided and agreed among themselves that they would have s business deal of a specially built shaving mill. There was no legal document involved in this. A fax was sent by B&C to Gardner which was the invoice of the shaving mill. It also contained information about the payment structure. But later, due to lavk of customers, Gardner was unable to pay the remaining amount. The issue here is that Gardner and B&C did not have a proper legal contract. So no legal action can be taken against the parties as there is no evidence.