neecee said:
I signed over my pink slip in 1996 for my 1971 fiat spider convertable in great condition, to a friend who in turn wrote up a contract which we both signed saying he would paint my house in trade. The contract was dated but there was no time frame stated in the body of the agreement. I told him that I didn't want the house painted until it needed it which would be in the year 2000. Now, he is putting me off and not returning calls. My question, is there a statute of limitations on my case? Can I take him to small claims court, or has time run out? This is in the state of California. Thank you for any help you can give me.
My response:
Very interesting scenario and fact pattern.
You are actually discussing a "subsequent event" contract, where the contract doesn't expire until the happening of some future event, occurrence, or "trigger date".
Usually, you'd see such a contract in the business world; such as in Orange or Gold futures, or some other commodity. Or, it could be used between Government and airplane manufacturer - - e.g., a contract is made, but delivery of planes is not required until some specific future date.
This is basically what you have - - you completed your end of the bargain, and completion of the contract was not to occur until some future trigger date.
The problem you have is that while you "told" him that you wanted your house painted in 2000, you apparently didn't write that date into the contract. So, proving the "trigger date" is going to be a bit of a problem.
But, all is not lost. In contracts, a completion date for that contract must be reasonable in light of all factors. Your house didn't need painting in 1996; so, it was "reasonable" that your house would need painting in 2000.
Therefore, the statute of limitations begins to run upon the known or presumed, breach of the future event or trigger date, and the reasonable trigger date would have been sometime in 2000.
California has a 4 year Statute of Limitations on written contracts; therefore, even if you can't prove a date certain, you still have plenty of time to prove a "reasonable" date for his compliance with the contract, i.e., some date in the year 2000. And that's the date when the breach occurred, and that when the Statute clock started to tick.
Make sure that you write him a Certified Letter with Return Receipt reminding him of the contract and it's value, based upon the value of your Fiat at the time you signed it over to him. Remind him that if the work is not completed, or the value of a Fiat in 1996 is not paid to you, within 30 days from the date of your letter, you will sue him.
The only other problem you're going to have with the judge is keeping the judge from laughing his guts out concerning the value of a Fiat Spider ! It was never, what you might call, "a keeper". That's why they called it "Fix It Again Tony".
Good luck to you, and please keep me posted on what happens. This was an interesting situation !
IAAL
[Edited by I AM ALWAYS LIABLE on 07-05-2001 at 01:19 AM]
