RESTITUTION - RELIANCE LOSSES IN CONTRACT WITHIN STATUTE OF FRAUDS

Authors

John E. Riecker S.Ed., University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Abstract

Plaintiff, the owner of a seasonal night club, orally agreed to lease the premises for three years to the defendant. The plaintiff had a written lease prepared but it was not executed. Negotiations by letters and telegrams between the parties proved that the document was not a definite integration of their agreement sufficient to satisfy the statute of frauds governing leases of land for periods longer than one year. During this interval of negotiation, plaintiff at defendant's express request had procured a liquor license for the following year at the night club, hired a watchman, retained counsel to draw the proposed lease, and incurred telephone and other incidental expenses. Upon defendant's subsequent refusal to perform the oral contract, plaintiff brought suit for recovery of his various expenses and in addition for loss of the use of the premises during the first year of the proposed lease. Held, the unenforceability of the lease under the statute of frauds prevented plaintiff from recovering for loss of the use of the premises, but did not bar his right to reimbursement for the expenses incurred at defendant's request Minsky's Follies of Florida, Inc. v. Sennes, (5th Cir. 1953) 206 F. (2d) I.

Recommended Citation

John E. Riecker S.Ed., RESTITUTION - RELIANCE LOSSES IN CONTRACT WITHIN STATUTE OF FRAUDS, 52 Mich. L. Rev. 761 (1954).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol52/iss5/16