Question

Julie is a patron of the arts. She was at a recent gallery showing and fell in love with the new artist's work. She asked the artist if he would commission a custom piece for her. After verbally laying out what she wanted, the artist agreed to pain the piece for $1000. Julie agreed as long as the piece could be created by her annual charity ball (which was in 3 months). The artist bought all of the neccessary materials and began work right away. Julie visited the artist 2 months later and told him that she had decided to showcase another artist's work. She stated that she would no longer need the custom piece and would not be paying the artist. What defense could the artist use if the court decided there was not a valid contract in place?

Answer 1

Usually a contract has the following elements:

• Offer
• Acceptance
• Consideration
• Intention to create a legal relationship

The UCC states that any contract with value more than $500 must be in writing. As the involved amount in this case is $1000 and still there was no contract in writing, hence this case does not qualify as a contract under UCC. The court will rule in favour of Julie.

The only defence which the artist can state in this scenario is the monetary damage which he survived because of the contract getting void. However there are high chances that the court will not consider it as a valid argument as the artist can use the painting in his next exhibition and the monetary damage can get compensated.