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Violation of unsigned contract

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fstep2

Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? ny

A former client and I formed a partnership for a new business. I have a lot of communication from the partner confirming the terms (49 to 51% share with him putting up the start-up capital in exchange for my consulting) and a draft of the initial contract he sent. Over the next 3+ months while we did the work he pushed off signing the contract, sent a lot of revisions which were uploaded to a 3rd party system that he blocked access to (I get it lesson learned). At the end my team and I put in about 250 hours of work to get the business ready (paid for the office, put a bunch of expenses on our card, trained the sales team, build marketing collateral, developed content, recruited contractors, etc) under the assumption that we would keep 49% of the business. He ended up backing out of the deal claiming that my plans didn't align with his and making up a ridiculous story about how my plans favored the expansion of my other company. The other issue is that the partner is in Texas, he registered the business in Texas, BUT the office used for operation is in NYC and NYC was the only city we were pursuing for the venture at this time so the name was registered there as well. Can I make sure the case stays in NYC?

The amount of money in question is only about 12-15k, so going to court or hiring a lawyer in this state is not really feasible, so I would like to represent myself. What can I sue for (note the business has not produced income to this point, I want to sue for my time and/or equity I was supposed to be granted)?
 


racer72

Senior Member
Entering into a business agreement such as this is like gambling, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. You lost. Rarely if ever does suing for speculative adventures work. Plus without a signed contract, you really don't have a legal basis for a lawsuit. If you do sue, you will have to do it in Texas and things like travel expenses and lodging will come out of your pocket. Best to just chalk this up as an expensive lesson learned.
 

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