Legal Question in Business Law in California
Breach of Contract / School District
My non-profit corporation entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the local school district to provide services in exchange for a certain amount, payments to be made each month upon invoice. The contract states that payments shall be made within one month of receipt of the invoice. The School Board is required to approve all contracts. My contract was to be approved in early November, making it possible for finance to cut a check for the November invoice ($2,000) I presented.
Today I learned that no one had taken the contract to the School Board. And the next meeting is not until the 12th of December.
Obviously I will NOT receive payment for the November invoice within the specified 30 days.
Is this a breach of contract and what are my remedies if so?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Breach of Contract / School District
Because the contract does not take effective until the school board approves it, there is no contract in place and there can be no breach.
It seems that you presumed the contract had been approved, and if you decided to start performing based on that presumption then you took a risk. If the risk didn't turn out well then you can't blame the board.
If you were contracting with an individual, would you just mail him a contract and presume that he signed it? Of course not. And if you did make such a presumption but later learned you were mistaken, do you think the other party had breached? I'll bet you wouldn't. This is what happened here.
Depending upon the facts there is a good chance you will be entitled to payment for the services you have performed even if the contract is ultimately rejected. You won't, however, be entitled to enforce whatever terms of the contract you like and may have to wait more than a month for your money.
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