[consulting] Unsigned Contract Breach Question

[Andrew R. Kelly]

You might want to check out the email evidence angle, if there's enough of a
trail of acceptance on their end you might have a case.  I just found this
nugget:

 

http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/tenth-circuit-finds-emails-provide-suffi-76
114/ 

 

Good luck.

Andrew

 

From: consulting-bounces at drupal.org [mailto:consulting-bounces at drupal.org]
On Behalf Of Sam Cohen
Sent: Thursday, March 14, 2013 9:24 AM
To: A list for Drupal consultants and Drupal service/hosting providers
Subject: [consulting] Unsigned Contract Breach Question

 

Hi all,

I'm curious if anyone has experience with something like this.  

A client who is the head of a branch of a large institution gave the go
ahead for a very big project.  I supplied the SOW and they supplied the
contract that I was given to sign.  Now because of the size of this
institution, sometimes it takes weeks to get a signed contract back.  And in
this case after three weeks I heard back that someone over the head of the
person I was dealing with changed their mind and they've decided to go
another way.

So for over three weeks I've been committed, turned down another job because
I wasn't available, and had secured other people to work on that job, who
may have also turned down work.

While I'm guessing their is no legal recourse here, because I didn't have a
signed contract, I'm just curious is there's such a thing as an implied
contract -- after all, they gave it to me, I signed it and was not free to
take other work.  

I realize we're not attorneys here, just curious if this has happened to
anyone?  Is it even legal to ask someone to sign a contract, but take weeks
to come back with an answer?

Thanks,
Sam

 

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