Reference no: EM132245149

Woody Workman agreed with Mrs. My house has to be perfect to build and build new bookshelves and cabinets in the tv room. The total cost was to be $8,000.00- half of that amount was for materials and the other half for his labor costs.   Mrs. Myhouse…has lived in this house for 20 years and she owns it. They entered into two separate oral agreements- one for the materials and a separate agreement for the labor. Neither the bookshelves nor the cabinets will be permanently attached to the house. The bookshelves will have detachable strips that fit into hook devices on the wall to keep the bookcases from toppling over if children climb on them or in an earthquake.

Woody was to give her an invoice every two weeks and she would pay the cost for materials and labor at that time. He estimated that it would take him 7-8 weeks to do the project as he had to tear out a lot of old cabinets and then build the cabinets and bookshelves, finish them and make certain that the new work matched the old work that would still be in the room.

Woody went out to buy the materials and he delivered the materials to Mrs. Myhouse’s house on August 1, 20174 and began work on the project on August 2, 2017. Mrs. My was going to be out of town during this time so she gave Woody a key to the house.

At the end of two weeks, Woody prepared an invoice and faxed it to Mrs. Myhouse… She did not respond so he continued to work on the house (she was still out of town) but he sent another fax and left a voice mail message for her at her hotel.

At the end of 4 weeks, she still had not responded so he sent the new invoice with all of the materials and work done to date to her by fax. She did not reply but two days later she came home and he then presented her with the new invoice with all of the costs for materials and labor to date (ie, for the last 4 weeks).

Mrs. Myhouse.. told him that she would pay the wholesale price for the material but she would not pay for any labor. She told him that he had received free room and board for the time she was gone. (He had not spent any time in the house except to work on the agreed items).

Woody sues Mrs. Myhouse and it is your job to assess the validity of the contract, any defenses, and the probable outcome of this litigation.

Are these contracts enforceable by the court? Why or why not?