New York Breach Of Contract Legal Questions

I moved your question to breach of contract, contracts, chancery and equity. You will or should resolve this in small claims court. All of those courts have mediators who try to help parties negotiate resolutions on these types of claims. Most of the time they succeed. If they don't then a small claims judge will decide the matter. You are describing a scenario which reminds me of a law school exercise we analyzed decades ago. A homeowner looks out his front window and notices a law service mowing his yard. He mows his own lawn. He never hired a lawn service. He thinks the lawn service is making a mistake but just waves to the mower through the window. He thinks he will never owe for the lawn mow that day. He's wrong. A court of chancery or equity will step in to correct the wrong. Had the homeowner not waved or maybe was not home he would owe nothing. But by the homeowner acknowledging that this lawn was being mowed by waving he consented to or ratified an implied agreement that he would pay the reasonable value of the lawn mowing services when he did not stop the lawn service which the homewoner knew was making a mistake. He could have saved himself the lawn mowing bill by yelling out the door or window "wrong house or wrong lawn". By remaining silent he consented to pay a reasonable amount, probably the going rate for lawn mowing in that neighborhood, and the homewoner in this scenario will likely owe the cost of small claims court fees if he chooses to contest what is an open and shut fact scenario. In your case, you have a history or what you normally pay for services. If you paid less than that you will need to prove that the services were not reasonably the same. It's been raining much more and for more months in the past year. In your situation if you normally paid X dollars per mow or knew that was what you paid and the service mowed 30 or 40 percent more weeks this past year because of warm weather and excess rain, there is a possibility that you may owe more money unless you can prove by some documents that your agreement was unchanged regardless of mows. Think of the above example during mediation. If the mower could have stopped mowing mid-September and fully performed services but kept mowing without you informing it to stop you probably owe more money. This is just an example since your specific facts are unknown as is any agreement formalized with your mowing service which often times are absent. It's the mower's word and what they did versus yours and what you did to stop or not stop them from suspectingly continuing. Good luck.... Read More

There is no way to give you a complete answer without seeing the contract. In general terms, under New York laws contracts may include a force majeure clause or alike provisions that allow a party to recover payments in advance. Additionally, under New York consumer laws, if this was a payment for future services you may have a viable claim to request the refund. ... Read More

Greetings.  It appears you are unhappy with the length of time it is taking a contractor to obtain materials.  In New York, the relationship between a homeowner and a contractor is governed by a written contract.  In the absence of a written contract, the relationship will be governed by the parties expressions.  A homeowner who desires to put a time limit on the progress of work must clearly express such intentions.  In the absence of such clear expression, the contractor will have a reasonable time to perform.  A reasonable time is measured by a number of factors, one among them the length of time it takes to obtain material.  If the material is unavailable through no fault (no unreasonable actions) of the contractor, a premature termination will result in the contractor capable of suing the homeowner for lost profits.  The homeowner should contact an attorney to see what options the homeowner has, such as to request replacement material from the contractor, or obtain the material themselves.  Please contact a good New York attorney today.... Read More

Greetings.  It appears you are being sued by a client for indemnification or contribution.  When a maintenance company is being sued by a client (or anyone), the company should immediately notify their insurance carrier.  The carrier will determine coverage and provide attorneys on the company's behalf.  If coverage is denied, or the company doesn't have insurance, then the company must hire their own attorneys.  Note, however, if litigation has already begun, best practices dictate that the company should not wait for the insurance carrier to determine coverage and should immediately hire an attorney on their own.  The attorney can always later be relieved by the carrier's assigned attorneys. The importance is that the maintenance company not wait and risk losing any claims or defenses. For example, our maintenance company clients, including snow removal clients, routinely forward incident reports to us before litigation has begun and we in turn forward them to the carriers.  If litigation has already begun (post incident report), we enter an appearance to protect the maintenance company while the carrier is determining coverage.  When the carrier accepts coverage, we continue the representation if allowed or are substituted by the carrier's assigned attorneys.  Please contact a good New York attorney immediately. ... Read More

You would draft a complaint setting foth the basis for the court's jurisdiciton and your claim, you would draft a summons (forms can be found on the court's website), you would buy an index number online and efile the summons and complaint.  Then you would cause the defendant to be served with the summons and complaint.  For more details, you should contact the clerk of the court.... Read More

Since contracts are a State-Law issue it is worth mentioning that nonrefundable fees are rare in New York. However, before jumping into any conclusions as to whether you can a get a full refund it is necessary to see the contract you signed, if you signed one. If a service provides failed to disclose a material fact such as coverage area you might be able to recover. However, there is no information to know for sure. That said you may want to consider sending a strong Demand Letter asking for the full refund. Then, if you don't get an answer you may consider filing a lawsuit. This could be framed as a small claims consumer dispute. However, keep in mind that in order ro sue in New York the Defendant must be located in New York. Finally, if you are thinking on engaging legal cousel, keep in mind that attorney's fees are only recoverable in certain cases, ond of them, when it has been agreed into the contract. ATTENTION. Thid is not legal advice. The information provided in this website is of general character. ... Read More

  Assuming you are not a debt collector, I'm not sure what their basis is for threatening to sue you.  In the end, sometimes a strongly worded letter from an attorney speaking on your behalf and laying out your rights will get their attention.  And to the extent there is not a written contract does not change that result.  If you get their attention through a letter, you could then enter into a settlement agreement that would set the precise schedule of how/when they are to pay you back.   ... Read More

  The enforceability of the non-compete depends upon many factors including the terms of the contract, the scope of the restriction (in both time and geographic reach), and how much you were paid.  In the end, courts are remiss to enforce overbroad noncompete clauses in contracts because they don’t want to prevent someone like you from providing for yourself.  Also, there may be an argument that the noncompete was only given by you as consideration for the tutoring's company's agreement to pay you.  If they never paid you that then there MAY be an argument that they did not provide their consideration which MAY relieve you from the non-compete obligations. But if the pay was simply delayed, that might not be as strong of an argument.  In the end, the precise wording of the non-compete as well as the other provision of the contract will ultimately determines if it will be enforced.   ... Read More