Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Can parents be forced to pay for unsold fundraiser items?

Your obligation to pay, if any, would be based on private contract. If your agreement to "participate in fundraising" can be stretched to include this obligation, then you should pay. However, the agreement probably doesn't cover such an unusual and hard-to-anticipate obligation.

In any case, the organization is very unlikely to sue you. The worst thing that's likely to happen is that certain members will be unhappy with you, and this likely would be the case whether or not you have any legal obligation.

In the final analysis, it's going to boil down to whether you want to shell out some extra bucks to buy peace within the organization.

One other possibility needs to be mentioned. If the organization has a financial obligation (indebtedness) to an outsider, a third party, for these tickets, the participating members might be personally liable for their pro-rata shares of the third-party indebtedness if it were not paid out of the organization's treasury. This would be based on the rules relating to active member liability for the debts of an unincorporated association. However, unless the organization is broke and not paying its bills from its own funds, this probably doesn't come into play and such liability would be pro-rata and not based on number of unsold cards.

Re: Can parents be forced to pay for unsold fundraiser items?

In a word, No! Only social coersive pressure can be put upon you. No legal obligation exists.