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What is a Breach of Contract and What Are Defenses to Breach of Contract in Florida? - YouTube
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Hi I鈥檓 Reed Bloodworth managing partner
of Bloodworth Law in Orlando Florida.
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At Bloodworth Law we represent plaintiffs
and defendants in many types of civil litigation.
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At Bloodworth Law we travel throughout the
I-4 corridor.
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This means we come to our clients and we take
care of cases in courts close to our clients.
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Today wanted to address breaches of contract
defense system breaches of contract.
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So some of the first issues to address is
well what鈥檚 a contract?
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A contract is a fairly simple instrument.
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It requires an offer.
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It requires acceptance and it requires consideration
which is the item or thing that is bargained
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for between the parties.
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Next a breach of contract what鈥檚 that mean?
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Well a breach of contract means there was
one a valid contract two that it was breached
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by one of the parties meaning one of the parties
didn鈥檛 fully perform his or her duties pursuant
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to the contract and three as a result of that
that party suffered damages.
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Typically these damages are monetary in nature.
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So what are defenses to a breach of contract?
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Well in Florida there are many types of defenses
to breach of contract.
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I鈥檓 going to address several of them in
this video.
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Please understand there are many many potential
defenses to breach of contract claim.
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Here鈥檚 some of the most common ones.
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First the statute of limitations.
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Statute of limitations means a party has a
certain amount of time to file a lawsuit within
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the State of Florida.
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For a breach of contract that statute of limitation
is either five or four years.
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If there鈥檚 a written contract the parties
seeking to enforce their claim has five years
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to bring that cause of action.
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If it鈥檚 a verbal contract they only have
four years.
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If the party does not file a lawsuit within
the described time period then they鈥檝e lost
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the ability to enforce that contract.
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The second defense is was the contract illegal?
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In Florida you cannot contract to do an illegal
act.
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Occasionally people will contract for certain
things turn out to be illegal.
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Therefore if a party does not fully perform
under that contract it turns out that鈥檚
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okay because it鈥檚 a valid defense that the
contract was illegal.
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The next very common defense is fraudulent
inducement.
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Fraudulent inducement means that during the
course of negotiations one party was not honest
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with the other party and they said things
perhaps things that were false that were lies
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in order to get the order party to enter into
the contract with them.
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If this happened that is a valid defense to
a breach of contract case.
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It鈥檚 called fraudulent inducement.
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Next a very very common defense for breach
of contract is the statute of frauds.
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The statute of frauds is a doctrine that states
certain contracts must be in writing and if
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these types of contracts are not in writing
they鈥檙e unenforceable.
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Some of the contracts that have to be in writing
include contracts pertaining to real estate
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contracts whose performance will take longer
than one year contracts that are for above
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a certain amount of money and contracts that
have to be executed in a certain way.
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So those are some of the common statute of
fraud defenses that can be asserted.
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The next type of defense involves mistake.
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You have unilateral mistakes and mutual mistakes.
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What this means is a contract cannot be breached
if the parties that entered into the contract
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did not understand the terms to the contract.
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This can take place unilateral meaning one
of the parties to the contract did not understand
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or mutual meaning both sides to the contract
did not understand the terms.
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Finally a very common defense in Florida is
impossibility.
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Impossibility of performance means that due
to completely unforeseen circumstances such
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as a death or incapacity or perhaps a property
destruction the contract cannot be completed.
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This is a valid defense to a breach of contract
action.
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As I stated there are many other defenses
to breach of contract actions but these are
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some of the most common ones.
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I hope that this video was helpful.
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I hope the explanations were helpful.
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Again my name鈥檚 Reed Bloodworth the managing
partner at Bloodworth Law.
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Give me a call.
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Let鈥檚 talk about what happened to you.
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