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Not sure if this is this is the right place to ask this. But there isn't a legal section on this forum.
Anyway, I have a business deal with a restaurant. So I make an appointment with the owner so he can sign a contract. He ends up not being there, so the brother of the owner, who works there, but I never had any prior dealings with, ends up signing the contract. I guess the owner told him to sign it because he was unavailable. Is this a binding contract?
I wouldn't advise you to accept any legal advice on an internet forum as gospel, and I'm certainly not a lawyer. It would probably be best if you contact a lawyer for a definitive answer.
That said, unless the brother was given explicit written/verbal authorization (such as Power of Attorney) to sign on the guy's behalf you've been dealing with, or unless the brother's listed as the actual owner of the business, then I would assume the contract is null and void...
Not sure if this is this is the right place to ask this. But there isn't a legal section on this forum.
Anyway, I have a business deal with a restaurant. So I make an appointment with the owner so he can sign a contract. He ends up not being there, so the brother of the owner, who works there as a maitre d, but I never had any prior dealings with, ends up signing the contract. I guess the owner told him to sign it because he was unavailable. Is this a binding contract?
Only if he is in a decision-making/management position.
Being that he is "only" a maitre d' then no.
(This being my non-law practicing opinion.)
should be ok if you get the owner to sign it at a later date.
i worked as a consultant for many years and there was one project with a client where we had a primary contact at the client site who was our primary point of contact. we finished the project and he signed off on it saying that our work was completed to his satisfaction, etc.
we got some calls a few weeks later that they wanted more work done, etc. these were all enhancements (not stuff broken but "oh yeah, now that we're using this, we think it would be better if you changed it to this..." so we told them that we'd have to charge them for it.
of course they weren't happy to hear that. they said that in their minds, the original work isn't done yet. when we showed them the signed contract, they simply said that the guy wasn't authorized to sign that, etc.
in the end, we ended up doing some work for free for them...and they paid for the rest.
get the right signature.
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