Are there any legal limits about how short a time a vendor can give to sign and return a contract?
Let’s say that the contract is sent out today, March 12, by regular U.S. mail and says that if it is not returned by March 19, no payment will be made. Given the mail system that would require nearly immediate turnaround with no chance to study the language of the contract.
Does it make a difference is the goods and services have already been provided? In writing it’s standard to have an article or short story accepted first and the contract is sent out after acceptance.
I’m in New York State if state law makes a difference.
BTW, the language used is returned by March 12, with no indication of whether that means postmarked by or physically received by.
No, I’m not looking for legal advice. Just wondering is there is law associated with this.
Assuming no prior relationship or action between the parties, they send you an offer and a deadline to accept by mail. There’s nothing wrong with that. They are saying the offer expires at a time certain. Either you accept on time or no contract.
Further, most states follow the mailbox rule that says an offer is accepted when the acceptance is dropped in the mail … not when it is received by the offeror … unless otherwise specified in the offer. If your state follows this rule, then the second you drop the acceptance in the mail, you accepted the deal and you formed a valid contract. This is true even though the offeror has no idea at the time that there is a valid contract in place because he hasn’t received your acceptance yet.
In your case, it sounds like you have some prior dealings, so you may already have some kind of contract in place. We would need to know the details leading up now to consider it.
Another legal issue in your favor is that the deadline has to be enforced by one of the parties within a reasonable time. So if you send the contract a day late and they don’t protect right away (or, say, within a couple of weeks), then they’ve affirmed the contract by not doing anything. You won’t have to worry about them trying to negate it months or years from now.
You mention that “goods and services” have been provided. There are different sets of laws regarding contracts for consumer goods versus goods purchased for resale and services. Some of those laws may attempt to fill in the gaps for a missing or incomplete contract, so it’s possible there’s already an implied contract in place whether you get this one signed and returned in time or not.