COA Finds No Agreement In Statute Of Frauds Case

In Hanson v. Legasus of N.C., LLC, (09-1155), the trial court ruled against the plaintiffs because an agreement for the payment of money like theirs must be in writing but wasn't. The COA affirmed -- not because the parties' agreement was not in writing, but because it found no agreement at all.

In Hanson, the trial court essentially assumed that an agreement existed, without laying out its terms. The COA looked to the record and found some emails and letters but nothing memorializing that the parties came to a meeting of the minds as to the exact terms of the purported agreement for the payment of money. And without a contract, the statute of frauds is a non-issue.