Consumer Law, Warranties I bought...he delivered...now wants it back to sell for more money.

[equilution]

Another party and I agreed to a price, $1K, on a piece of property, although no money had changed hands...I was awaiting payment instructions. I have e-mails to support the mutual agreement of the price. The other party sent me a portion of the goods in advance of payment. After making the agreement with me, the other party sold the agreed upon property (to include the items I already had in my possession...and sold) on Ebay for more money than we agreed upon. Now he wants the piece of the property back that he sent me, that I already sold, based on our agreement.

I have made several options available to him to help rectify this situation, but he's unwilling to listen to reason.

My opinion, for what it's worth, is that he is just out of luck. He put himself into this predicament by not removing the eBay listing after making the deal with me.

Can I tell him to go pound salt???

Thanks for your help.

Jim Harris, President/CEO
Equilution, LLC
Tucson, AZ

 

[dee_dub]

You can tell him to pound sand, and it's pretty clear he's in the wrong. But without knowing more about what's gone on, it's difficult to say what position you'll wind up in. What outcome are you looking for?

I was awaiting payment instructions.

This is slightly troublesome. But assuming the method of payment is a trifle, it looks to me like you and the vendor have a binding agreement.

His subsequent "sale" to another prospective purchaser might be void because the subject matter of the sale is no longer his to dispose of - nemo dat. It's not on you, you can still sue for damages or specific performance. But if he's already disposed of the items to the vendor, you might have a problem. This could amount to repudiation of the contract. You're still entitled to sue for damages, but I don't know what those would be. Plus your duty to mitigate arises as soon as you learn of the repudiation.

I suspect a reasonable solution is you give him the money for the piece you got, maybe less something for the trouble he's put you through, and he buggers off and sells whatever he has left to his other buyer (if the buyer is still interested in the incomplete lot, and if not, too bad, that'll teach the seller to sell stuff he doesn't own). I sincerely doubt he's entitled to have the property back since you acted in good faith in disposing of it and he's the one who breached the agreement.

 

[equilution]

I've offered to pay fair price for the items he agreed to sell me. Even the entire $1k for a portion of the good that I received. "Not an option," he says, "and our dealings are over when you replace the parts I sent you." I have given him several options, but he's intent on finishing the deal with the other buyer of the equipment, even though I cannot send back what he's sent me.

Quite a quandary, but he's the one who put himself in this postion, and were I a lesser person, I would have told him "too bad" already...if continues, I may just stick to my guns and tell him he's SOL.

Thanks for the comments.

Jim

 

[LawStudentCU]

you bought shit off of ebay!?! sounds like you got a lagit company. For what its worth there is no pounding salt just you getting pounded in the ass.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

you bought shit off of ebay!?! sounds like you got a lagit company. For what its worth there is no pounding salt just you getting pounded in the ass.

This kind of talk and behavior is not tolerated here. I'd hate to think that this is what is in law school these days.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

This is slightly troublesome. But assuming the method of payment is a trifle, it looks to me like you and the vendor have a binding agreement.

His subsequent "sale" to another prospective purchaser might be void because the subject matter of the sale is no longer his to dispose of - nemo dat. It's not on you, you can still sue for damages or specific performance. But if he's already disposed of the items to the vendor, you might have a problem. This could amount to repudiation of the contract. You're still entitled to sue for damages, but I don't know what those would be. Plus your duty to mitigate arises as soon as you learn of the repudiation.

Agreed and great answer. I think there is a deal. By sending you a portion of the property the seller has ratified the deal, no question.

The damages might be the loss of the benefit of your bargain, IMHO. If you could have made $100 from the sale of the property, he owes you the $100. I don't know what the value of the property he sent you is but you can see where I'm going with this - you can't just keep it without paying if the value of the goods you have is more than the lost profit from the deal. It's a tough question to answer without all the facts, e.g. foreseeable you sold these goods to another party, etc.

The bottom line is this - if it were me, I'd let him know that I'm going to report him to eBay if he persists in this nonsense. He knows we made a deal and he breached our contract and violated eBay's rules but just doesn't want to pay for the consequences. If he wants to complain, go right ahead. It will result in his eBay account being terminated.

With regard to any amounts... you need to show why you lost the profit on the deal. Quite frankly, if the seller decided to sell the goods and made much more money on the 75% by breaching your contract, the seller is out of luck. In fact, it is possible the seller owes you money but you'll have to sue to get it and that may not be practical nor the law... I don't know all the facts.

What might I do - what I said in the bottom line and what you did. Be reasonable. Typically those in the position of the seller are not. If they still cannot be reasonable, I'd tell them to sue but at their risk since they caused the problem by their own misdeeds.