Legal Question in Civil Litigation in Virginia

Re: We were asked to take in few birds

It appears from your question that you were asked to care for some birds owned by another person, which you then sold to someone else. Whether you have cause to worry from the owner of the birds, involves whether or not she gave you the birds or simply asked you to care for them. If the birds were a gift, you would be entitled to "rehome" or sell them. If this was a bailment--if you were caring for her birds for a period of time--then you would face potential liability for selling them.

Re: We were asked to take in few birds

Your question is not very clear. Most of the questions here need more information. I wish there were a way on LawGuru to ask for more informaiton without rejecting the question outright.

If you signed nothing, the question becomes what was verbally said or agreed, and that is always difficult.

Why is the woman threatening you? That is, what is it she wants?

If she wants the birds back, then I think you probably should return them (even if that means getting them back from the person you gave them to).

If she is saying that you should have kept them yourself as "agreed" I think it would be very hard for her to support that.

But the problem with all of this is that everyone may remember differently what was said and what was agreed.

My colleague is correct that if she asked you to keep the birds and then return them this is called a "bailment." (For example, when you give your clothes to the dry cleaner or your car to the parking valet, you expect to get them back.)

However, this was clearly for her benefit, not yours. There are 3 categories or levels of bailments: (1) for your benefit, (2) for her benefit, and (3) for mutual equal benefit.

But if she expected to get them back, I do think you have to return them.

Now there may be limits to this. If you could not contact her for a long period of time to return them when they became trouble, if you made the ATTEMPT repeatedly, reasonably, you might be relieved of responsibility.