Re: putting a civil claims judgement on someone - Fraud?

Posted by jeje (12.228.187.127) on March 06, 2003 at 19:10:46:

In Reply to: Re: putting a civil claims judgement on someone posted by Eric on March 06, 2003 at 08:48:45:

In order for a contract to be enforceable, the contract must be legal. If it's not a legal contract, there is no contract.

If this building manager deliberately attempted to defraud you of the monies associated with that contract by insisting that you not read it and not disclosing the fact that the property is not zoned for a dance studio, that's fraud and a contract executed to defraud someone is not legal and not enforceable.

If you are confused about this, just think of it this way. A contract says, "Bob will provide SERVICE, in exchange for John providing PAYMENT." If Bob, for whatever reason, can not provide SERVICE, John does not have to pay.

If your contract specifically mentions that the lease was for a property to be used a dance studio, and this building is not zoned for a dance studio, the bldg manager/owner can not hold their end of the contract. You're out of it--in theory. But, of course it will take some effort to get out of it in practice.

It's quite possible that building owners/managers/proprietors can be fined or penalized in some way for allowing their properties to be used for purposes other than what it's intended or for purposes other than what the zoning rules allow. You need to find out if that's the case. If it is, then he's in trouble and you can use that for leverage if nothing else.

Find out whether or not he is required by law to disclose the zoning rules for that property when a lease is executed.

Hopefully, you can find and exploit some rule that he's broken by executing that contract to settle the matter "amicably" and avoid going to court.

If not, your only option may be proving that the contract was fraudulent. At first glance, your grounds would be that he knowingly leased you the property for a purpose that was not permitted by law to defraud you of the associated monies. If he took a commission or finder's fee for that lease, this may be easier to prove than you think.

How easy do you think it would be to find someone else he did this or something similar to?

You may want to search the court records for other contracts, leases, *anything* that the owner and manager have been involved in and contact the other parties to those issues. If he did this to you, he's probably done it before to others. Look for others to establish a pattern of behaviour.

It bears mentioning, that you probably don't want to go around saying that you want to "get the guy". That may weaken your case.

Good Luck.

jeje

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