is it a violation of a contract or not?

[minivan_mom]

I live in Michigan, fwiw.

Our neighbor asked my husband to do some electrical work on her home and a rental property she owns. He spent about 4 hours with her and her husband going over a quote, outlining what needs to be done to bring the properties up to code, etc. The price was agreed upon and my husband asked for 1/3 down (non-refundable) so he could secure the proper permits and materials. Our neighbor told him that she would rather pay in full than have to keep track of what had been paid and what hadn't, so she wrote him a check in full on the spot. She asked that we wait until the following week to cash the check because she needed her paycheck to be deposited. 2 days later she came over and asked for the check back because "she had written it out of a closed account and would give him a new one". We were in the car leaving, so we asked if it would be ok to do it when we got home. We didn't get home until late that night, so we decided to wait until the next day. The next day I found a post-it note stuck to my front door that basically states that she has decided to postpone the work due to "privacy concerns" she has. There is a 2nd neighbor that is in an on-going legal battle with the 1st neighbor and we are friends with the 2nd neighbor. The privacy issue I guess is regarding the 2nd neighbor. We still have the check (which we took to the bank, the account WAS NOT closed on the day we checked, but there was insufficient funds to cover it, so we just kept it) and the note she left on the door. About a week after we received the note, she had 2 more electricians come in for quotes and now has one of them doing the work for her.

My question is, can the check that she wrote my husband be considered a legal contract? She stopped the job not due to any fault of my husbands, but because she doesn't happen to like one of the neighbors that we are friends with. I'm considering taking her to small claims court and would like to know if I have any legal leg to stand on before I drag us all into court.

Thank you for your help...

 

[BL]

I live in Michigan, fwiw.

Our neighbor asked my husband to do some electrical work on her home and a rental property she owns. He spent about 4 hours with her and her husband going over a quote, outlining what needs to be done to bring the properties up to code, etc. The price was agreed upon and my husband asked for 1/3 down (non-refundable) so he could secure the proper permits and materials. Our neighbor told him that she would rather pay in full than have to keep track of what had been paid and what hadn't, so she wrote him a check in full on the spot. She asked that we wait until the following week to cash the check because she needed her paycheck to be deposited. 2 days later she came over and asked for the check back because "she had written it out of a closed account and would give him a new one". We were in the car leaving, so we asked if it would be ok to do it when we got home. We didn't get home until late that night, so we decided to wait until the next day. The next day I found a post-it note stuck to my front door that basically states that she has decided to postpone the work due to "privacy concerns" she has. There is a 2nd neighbor that is in an on-going legal battle with the 1st neighbor and we are friends with the 2nd neighbor. The privacy issue I guess is regarding the 2nd neighbor. We still have the check (which we took to the bank, the account WAS NOT closed on the day we checked, but there was insufficient funds to cover it, so we just kept it) and the note she left on the door. About a week after we received the note, she had 2 more electricians come in for quotes and now has one of them doing the work for her.

My question is, can the check that she wrote my husband be considered a legal contract? She stopped the job not due to any fault of my husbands, but because she doesn't happen to like one of the neighbors that we are friends with. I'm considering taking her to small claims court and would like to know if I have any legal leg to stand on before I drag us all into court.

Thank you for your help...

You have no damages ...

It was just a waste of time.

Rip the check up and move on.

 

[tranquility]

While measuring the damages may be difficult, there are hardly "no" damages in a contract sense. Contracts are benefit of the bargain measurement.

Was there a contract? Probably. But then, it seems there will be some argument and the real question is, was there enough of a contract to go to court over?

 

[latigo]

I'm considering taking her to small claims court and would like to know if I have any legal leg to stand on before I drag us all into court.

For starters let’s gets some wires uncrossed. YOU ain’t going to drag anyone into court and YOU ain’t got no legal leg to stand on!

Because she didn’t hire YOU to do the electrical work.

Our neighbor asked my husband to do some electrical work

And she didn’t write YOU a check.

she wrote him a check in full on the spot

As far as the homeowner’s check being “considered a legal contract” the fact is that she withdrew her tendering of that particular check BEFORE you presented it for payment.

. . . later she came over and asked for the check back because "she had written it out of a closed account and would give him a new one”. . . we asked if it would be ok to do it when we got home.

Now if your husband wants to take the time and the trouble of suing her on the check as her promise to pay its face amount and argue that his agreement to return it is ineffectual or vitiated because it was based upon untruths,

Or disregard the check and sue her for breach of her the agreement to hire him to do the electrical work – that is his prerogative.

But under either theory he must produce convincing evidence of the profit he would have gained if the work had actually been performed. Because in no event would he be entitled to a judgment for the contract price.
__________________________________

And I can assure you that the judge is not going to listen to any of the petty nonsense you have included in your post about childish neighborhood squabbling!

 

[justalayman]

I live in Michigan, fwiw.

Our neighbor asked my husband to do some electrical work on her home and a rental property she owns. ..

Kind of a curious couple of questions:
does your husband hold a contractors license as an electrical contractor in Michigan?

Does he hold a journeyman's or master's license to be able to perform electrical work in MI?

 

[BL]

the lady will still need the work done at some point in time --- do you want the job & get paid? Then be patient , she'll call you back later if you are nice today ..

About a week after we received the note, she had 2 more electricians come in for quotes and now has one of them doing the work for her.

Reading and comprehension.