So it would be better to stop paying or il be in bing risk?
Call your county’s Bar Association. Most of them have programs where you can speak to a lawyer for a short amount of time for free or very little cost. You might be more comfortable getting advice from a professional one-on-one, where you can share some of the reasons for the contract, rather than giving minimal information to everyone on the internet and hoping for a one-size-fits-all answer.
Hope it all turns out well.
If I remember something from my contracts class, a promise isn’t a contract unless there was consideration to make the promise.
But from what was written, it’s not even clear there was a promise to pay $400 per month. “So start to pay the payments starting 7/1/14” is more of a command.
Plus, I only see one signature. You can’t have an agreement with only one signature. An authorized agent of GF Food Mart Inc. should have signed as well.
An example of an agreement that would more likely be enforceable by a court of law would be something like this: “Flores acknowledges that he owes GF Food Mart Inc. $9,991.54 for goods and services rendered to him by GF Food Mart Inc. Flores promises to pay off the aforementioned debt by making payments of $400 per month starting 7/11/14 until such debt is paid in full. In exchange for such payments, GF Food Mart Inc. will discharge Flores from all liability for debts owed to the corporation.”
I don’t think that last line is necessary, but it sometimes helps to be explicit with your consideration even if the implied consideration is obvious.
If OP want’s to collect his debt, I would not go to court with a breach of contract claim based on the written paper he has. It would be much easier to sue on the underlying debt, and to use that paper as evidence of that debt. If GF Food Mart gave Flores $10k worth of goods, then that’s a prime facie case for a contract.
The fact that it is handwritten would be, in my opinion, not germane to the question of whether it is binding. There are many possible ways out of a contract, but the fact that a mechanical printing device was not employed to create the hard copy of it is not one of them. Which addresses the title of the thread.
Which is why the bank honors your hand-written checks.
I seriously doubt this is about $9,491.54 in grocery purchases. This looks more like some form of restitution. Also, I believe the OP is the one who owes the money to the food mart.
Its a promise. It may add circumstancial evidence to a court , if you have to ask for judgement and he says “I don’t owe ANYTHING” then why would he sign that ?
He can say he only agreed in good faith as to the amount owed, and in hindsight he can see the debt isn’t that much. So then you might want to prove how much he owes in more detail, some other way.
We’ll the owner from the store didn’t sign, the person getting payed the debt
That doesn’t matter, the person owing the debt did sign, that’s the most important.
Most IOU’s are not signed by both parties, just the person owing the debt.
The fact that there’s no interest rate, doesn’t matter either. Zero interest loans are common.
That isn’t what the OP said, though, is it? “We’ll the owner from the store didn’t sign, the person getting payed the debt.” Doesn’t that imply the person who is being paid signed it, not the person paying?
OP, if you want help, you need to be **a lot **less vague. Who are you, the person the money is owed to, or the person paying the debt? If we can’t even understand that much, even dopers aren’t going to be much help to you.
Please explain:
[ul]
[li]Who owes the money, the store or you?[/li][li]Who signed the contract, someone from the store or you?[/li][li]Is the money being paid for: goods and/or services someone got, or damages for a wrong-doing, or to pay back something like a loan (or an advance on pay)?[/li][/ul]
Me, I signed, and a regular person, not related to the owner of the store, pay go goods.
The way I read the promissory note is as follows:
As I stated above, it appears that GF Food Mart has a valid receivable from Flores for $9,491.54 that is due monthly in $400 payments, assuming that you are Flores and that you signed it as you say you did. The document is silent with regard to prepayment, so you could pay it all off at once or you could take the 2 years to pay them back as well.
Can you try this again, in simple complete sentences? As written, it’s not clear what you mean.
IANAJD, but another criteria for a contract to be valid is that it shouldn’t be confusing or ambiguous. I’m not sure a promise for “Flores” to make monthly payments scribbled on the back of a napkin qualifies.
What’s confusing or ambiguous? The parties know who each other is. The amount, the date, and the payment amounts are clear.
I have enforced shakier agreements between me and another party BUT -
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that was in the states of Illinois and Indiana
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even if the document is legally a contract it might cost money to actually enforce it
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and -
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it might require a trip in front of a judge.*
As Oakminster has stated, you need to consult a lawyer licensed to practice where this document applies.
- Or even more than one - I thought I had a payment agreement between me and someone who owes me $3k+, which already had taken two trips in front of a judge and may now require a third. What a pain in the butt.
HEY Jr0214, you have acknowledged that you are the party that owes the $9,500.
Are you asking if you can get out of your debt based upon some technicality of the agreement? If so, how is that fair to GF Food Mart?
That’s what I’m wondering. Do you really owe them this money? If you owe them this money, why the hell should any of us help you weasel out of your debt to them? The only thing we do by helping you weasel is helping to make our society a little bit shittier.
I just thought that this response needs to be bumped. Free legal advice can be costly. You need to speak to an attorney licensed in CA.
He tried that, but no one would accept an IOU scrawled on the side of a cow as a retainer.