Kentucky Breach Of Contract Legal Questions

This is a great question.  Most contracts have a "force majeur clause."  This cause excuses parties from performing obligations when certain unforeseen and unavoidable events occur.  These are known as "Acts of God."  They generally refer to catastropic events, such as an earthquake, a war, etc.  And, your question is whether or not it applies to COVID-19.    There are currently tons of contract and insurance cases in Courts right to determine if the contract should pay the insurance based on whether or not COVID-19 was responsible.  For example, many restuarants purchased insurance policies for loss of business.  The insurance carriers did not predict the COVID-19 shut down, and now they do not want to pay for the loss of business, where they have been accepting the insurance payments from the restuarant for years.   Well, the same applies to you.  It is not your fault nor the venue's fault that your wedding cannot take place.  COVID-19 is an unforeseen event.  In my opinion, the "force majeur clause" should regard COVID-19 as an Act of God.  They probably do not want to give your down payment back, as they have lost so much business, they may not have the funds to do so.   Since this is only a down payment, you would probably qualify to take this claim to small claims court.  Let them know that you plan to sue them for the return of the down payment in small claims court.  If they do not pay you in a timely manner, file the claim in small claims court.  Good luck.... Read More

If you loan someone money and he doesn't pay  you as agreed, he is in breach of contract, promissory note or not.  The note serves as evidence to prove the contract and its terms.  However, it cannot be determined whether it is legally enforceable without knowing whether the debtor has any defenses to the contract (e.g. he may claim it was entered into under duress, that he was defrauded into entering it, that it is usurious, that he was not of legal age or mentally competent when he agreed to it, that you forgave the debt at some point etc. etc. etc.)  The better drafted the  promissory notes were (for example did they include merger clauses stating that they represented the entire agreement between the parties, superceded any previous oral or written agreements or representations, and couldn't be changed except in writing signed by both parties?), the better your chances of defeating any defenses.... Read More

Probably not.  Only a material breach of a contract will excuse the non-breaching party's non-peformance.  When a party breaches a contract in a material way, the non-breaching party generally has two choices.  He/she/it can either rescind the contract, meaning that neither party would have any ongoing obligation, or continue to with the contract  but sue for damages incurred due to the breach.  He/she/it cannot, however, continue under the contract, assert no claim relating to the breach, and use it as an excuse to ignore his/her/its own contractual obligations at some significantly later point in time.  In other words, even assuming that your employer breached (if there is any doubt in the language of the contract, the fact that you went along with the practice for 4 years would support the interpretation that there was no breach) and that the breach was material, having done nothing about the lack of a day off for four years (it is unclear whether you were paid for the extra time you worked, which would make your position even weaker), you can't now use it as an excuse to breach the non-compete. The non-compete may not be unenforceable for other reasons, as such clauses are viewed with some skepticisim by the Courts.  However I don't think the failure to provide a day off will get you off the hook.... Read More

Your father may have a claim; you do not.  Your father can claim that he was fraudulently induced to enter into the contract with Directtv, but he will have an uphill battle to avoid the provisions of the written contract.  Unless you are your father's legal guardian or conservator, or he has given you a power of attorney, you can't sue for him, and even in those cases, your father is going to have to testify, as he has personal knowledge of the relevant facts (e.g. who said what to who, what he understood, why the person he spoke to should have known that he didn't understand the transaction, etc.) and you do not.  I think that you may get further going through consumer advocacy channels than in court (e.g. try to get a consumer reporter interested, complain to the better business bureau, etc.), as Directtv may fear the bad publicity if word of this spreads, but you can do both.... Read More

Generally, collection matters like this are handled on a contingency basis, that is you pay only a percentage of what you collect.  The percentage can vary depending on a number of factors, including the size and the age of the debt, but would probably fall somewhere in the 25% to 40% range.... Read More

It can depend on what the retainer agreement provides, but generally the client is entitled to a refund of theunused portion of the retainer, if any.  If there wasn't any set hourly rate, a Court would likely calculate the reasonable value of the work that was done (plus disbursements) and, if less than $10,000, award a refund of the difference.... Read More