More details to this question:
I'm purchasing an aircraft from a seller in Florida. I emailed the seller a week ago an offer, the seller replied in email accepting the offer. As part of the offer I wired $4500 down payment. The seller has since wanted to back out of the deal, presumably so he can sell the aircraft to another buyer for more money. Assuming he does this and returns my deposit, what legal course do I have? The price we agreed upon was very good and it would be about $20,000 more to buy another aircraft like it.
1 ANSWER
Contracts for the sale of goods over $500 have to be in writing, but the writing can be found in your emails. Assuming that your emails formed a binding agreement (which did not in some way limit the damages you could recover for breach, by, for example, limiting your damages to recovering your deposit) which the seller then breaches by reneging on your deal and selling the aircraft to another, your damages would likely be the amount by which the fair market value of the plane exceeded the amount you agreed to pay. From your email, it appears that that amount would be approximately $20,000. In the alternative, it is possible that you could, under the theory that once you contracted to buy the plane, any profit from its sale should be yours, recover the money the seller received from the new buyer, minus the amount you had agreed to pay.
Answered on Sep 18th, 2013 at 12:04 PM