I am not a fan of texting.
I am also well aware of the fact that nobody cares about my
opinion. However, I am often appalled at
the amount of information that I have seen normally prudent people convey in
text messages. It is almost as if the
convenience and ephemeral nature of the medium somehow makes a person less
careful than they would be in ordinary communication.
Therefore, I
am not surprised that a Massachusetts court recently found that a string of
text messages constituted an enforceable real estate contract between a buyer
and a seller. We all remember the
Statute of Frauds from law school and the fact that in order to be enforceable,
a contract to sell real estate must be in writing. This case, Saint John Holdings, LLC v. Two Electronics, LLC found that the
text messages sent between two parties did in fact constitute writings and when
taken together formed an enforceable contract.
Although
this case deals with real estate the analogies to other areas of contract law are
obvious. One needs to be careful when sending text messages (or
emails for that matter) regarding any kind of transaction or dispute. Don’t put a statement in writing unless you intend
to be bound by it or unless you qualify it accordingly. Now… put down that
phone and drive.
