If you do not make the payments required under the contract, then you "breach" the contract.
The most interesting cases seem to always involve a trailer. In this case, brother dies leaving all of this property to his sister. This property includes the trailer at issue.
Previously, brother entered into an installment sales contract with seller whereby brother agreed to make monthly payments before the 4th day of the month. Brother did not. After brother's death, sister attempted to make a lump sum payment of $2,000 to seller. Seller refused and sister filed her lawsuit. During the interim period, sister did not make any of the required monthly payments. Wrong decision.
The holding: 1. Brother was in default at time of death. Pursuant to the contract, Brother's default resulted in the contract becoming a lease.
2. Even if Brother had not been in default, Sister's failure to make the required monthly payments (or even tender them to Seller) resulted in Sister losing any rights under the contract.
3. Sister's appeal was frivolous.
The Moral of this Story: Pay your monthly payments on time or forfeit your rights.
See Smith v. Hatfield
No comments:
Post a Comment