What Form 5495 Statutory 2017-2023

This unit introduces the statute of frauds. It is a common misconception among non-lawyers that an agreement needs to be in writing in order to be legally enforceable. In fact, putting aside practical questions of proof, most oral agreements, once proven, are just as enforceable as a written contract. However, for several specific kinds of contracts, the law requires the agreement to be memorialized in some kind of writing, but not necessarily a formal written contract, before it can be enforced. The law involved here is not common law case decisions, but rather statutory law. And although the statutes can differ in their details, all states have enacted some kind of statute for the Prevention of Frauds, which is typically shortened to the phrase "statute of frauds." Section 110 of the Restatement Second of Contracts summarizes five kinds of contracts that most states' general statute of frauds include. One, contracts by executors or administrators to answer an obligation of the deceased. Two, contracts to be responsible for the debt of another, for example, when a parent guarantees repayment of a loan made to a child. Three, contracts made upon consideration of marriage. Four, contracts for the sale or lease of an interest in land, at least leases longer than a month. And five, contracts that cannot be ed within one year from the making of the contract. That is, it must be impossible, and not just unlikely, that the contract can be completed within one year. This last category is perhaps the trickiest of the five. Let me give you an example to show why. An agreement for lifetime employment is not within the statute, because if the employee died within a year, that would complete the lifetime term in the contract. And as it is not impossible for anyone to...