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Friday, May 30, 2008

Law - More on: E-mails and the statutes of frauds

Updating this ILB entry from May 22nd, FindLaw has an article by law prof Anita Ramasastry titled "A New York Appellate Court Holds that an Email Message Can Amend an Employment Contract: Why the Decision Was Correct, and What It Means for Employees." It begins:

Last month, in the case of Stevens v. Publicis, a New York intermediate appellate court held that a series of emails was sufficient to modify an employment contract, because the emails (which included signature lines) counted as “signed writings,” provided details as to the contract modifications and clearly expressed both parties' unqualified acceptance of the modifications.

Businesses and/or employees can avoid the effect of the ruling by amending their original agreements to forbid email modification. But if they do not do so, they should be on notice that a few emails may result in major changes to a contract.

As the article notes:
The key issue arose under the New York Statute of Frauds, which requires the material terms of certain legally enforceable agreements to be memorialized in a writing signed by the parties to be charged (that is, the parties who will have to fulfill the responsibilities the agreement imposed).

Posted by Marcia Oddi on May 30, 2008 06:45 PM
Posted to General Law Related