[Anthony]

OK, here's the gist. I did some work for a company that subs out people. They have a form email that they send out to the sub-contractors. In it I received the job information, including client, address, etc. This was my first time working with them. Anyway, in the email it stated $450 for this particular contract, which seemed reasonable, if a touch high-but I was happy to accept the job. So I did the job, and received a check for $45. I emailed them asking what they were doing. They accused ME of fraud! I've tried to reason with them, to even just open a dialogue, but all I get are "we don't like fraud!!" and such. So my question is if they're legally obligated to pay. It could well be that they made a typo when sending out the job contract email, but then if you make a mistake on a contract, you're still bound to it aren't you? Unless it's an outrageous mistake of course(I think there are exceptions if it's like, $450K instead of $45,000). I figure Small Claims Court would be the answer if they refuse to pay up, but I wanted to know where I stand legally first. Thanks for any info,

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-Anthony
Carpe Carpem

[strata]

I asked my boss, and she said: It's not really legally binding, but of course you can take it to court. By reason it would be to your advantage that they removed the zero seeing how little 45 dollars is, so it would be more logical that it should've been 450 bucks. As far as the actual email she didn't THINK that it was legally binding...
She also pointed out that you would probably lose more money by taking it to court because of lawyer expenses and stuff tho..

I'll ask my dad tonight... he claims to be a lawyer, he'll know =)

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Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?

[Nex]

as far as i know:
a contract is always binding (according to the laws in my country however) regardless if spoken or written [and SIGNED by both parties]-

BUT:
it will be hard to proove this without hard facts such as witness or proof.
emails only MAY be taken as an actual proof if they are digitally signed.
Without this I think you won't be able to sue them successfully because even the laws that allow the signature to be replaced by a digital signature are not yet passed.

just my opinion, i am no lawyer.


[This message has been edited by Nex (edited March 02, 2001).]

[Anthony]

Thanks for the tips guys. I've successfully calmed them down, and we're gonna negotiate. They always said I should be a diplomat. :] Thanks again.

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-Anthony
Carpe Carpem