Help, I need advise.. Broken contract.

Hi I was purchasing a horse with a verbal contract that included I pay 1/2 now in the form of a check, I then had to go out of town and was to return and pick the horse up on the 28th of Feb. with the rest of the amount owed in cash. The seller sold the horse to another party while I was on vacation and after she already cashed my check. Can I hold her to our agreement and take the horse? I even wrote on the check the horses name and 500/1000. She has also not sent me my money back as she lied at first and told me she was just going to keep him as she was having a hard time getting rid of him. I felt bad at first and thought I would hope someone would understand if I didn't want to sell my horse. After I saw the add for the horse still on Dream horse for 500 more than our agreement and it said sale pending, I started checking into all of this and found it to be a lie. She sold the horse to someone else for 500 more and had already cashed my check. Is the horse legally mine since she cashed the check and I still havn't recieved my money back from her even if I did want it, although the horse is what I want. I know where the horse is located do I have the right to go get him and give her the rest of the money owed. In which case she would have to deal with the other people she sold him to?

The verbal contract part makes it a little tricky. Verbal contracts can become a lot of "he said, she said." However, if she cashed your check and then sold the horse to someone else that is another thing. Have you approached her about giving you a refund or the horse? I would give her a chance to either give you your money back or give you the horse. Threaten her with going to the authorities, court. If she does neither, I would take some legal action. Dont just go over to where the horse is and take it back. You could even tell the people she sold the horse to what is going on. Thats a sticky situation. Those kind of people give horsepeople a bad name.

Yes I got the whole story and then confronted her with all I knew through a phone conversation. She said she sent the check yesterday of course but the thing is I don't want the money I really want the horse as he is a nice horse that we would give a forever home to. See he is a just 3 year old this spring Percheron who has been started by someone else not the person who did the bad deal. But he has been started right is very gentle and the people she sold him to supposivlly have very little horse experience. I care more about what happens to him than getting my money back and I really just want what should be done to be done which I believe the other party she sold him to should get all of thier money back and I would get the horse as I bought him a week before they paid for him. I am going to do my best to find the contact info for the other party and let them know what is going on incase she hasn't yet but I also called the county court where the seller lives to get that info on what I have to do. I guess we will see how she handles the whole thing???

If she gives you a refund, it will be hard to get the horse based on a verbal contract. The court might look at it like, well she gave you your money back and there was no written contract so.... I dunno..this one's a hearbreaker. I would probably still try to contact the other party and tell them what is up.

At this point, I am sorry but I would look at it as the third party who purchased the horse are now the legal owners. One, if you only paid a certain percentage then I see that as a down payment, but not entitling you as the legal owner until the amount for the horse was paid in full (please feel free to correct me if I have the information wrong). If the seller did indeed refund you the down payment, and there is absolutely nothing in writing saying that you were purchasing that horse for "x" amount of dollars then it is going to be pretty hard to make it stick in court. Like Rosie said, more than likely it is going to come down to a "he said, she said" type situation. I am not saying that you shouldn't contact the the third party, but I would still try to keep in mind that if they did pay in full for him, then I would consider the horse legally theirs.

I don't want to seem like a downer, just trying to point out how I see the situation potentially playing out. If I got any part of the OP wrong then I am sorry, please feel free to correct me. I am sorry this happened to you, situations such as these are really unfortunate. My best advice to you would be to always get something in writing to help protect you from situations such as these. I hope everything works out well for you! Good luck!

Another point of view - if she wasn't upfront with her deal - what else is she potentially hiding about the horse?

It hurts but there is a horse out there waiting for a compassionate human to love it. Keep looking!

That is a really good point to make as well. It is a sad thing, but you really do have to watch who you trust. Like mls said, there are many horses out there who need love and compassion.

I would force her to retain the horse and give it to you.

The check works as a deposit.

I would also make her pay any and all court costs, loss of work, etc.

Pretty simple.

find a good lawyer that is good at slinging dirt and everyone is scared of in the court room. :)

I would say yes but I am also well aware of so many ads on various sites where the horse itself does not even exist. Did the OP even SEE the horse....I notice this part was missing in the original post. If the OP never did then it could be an imaginary horse (stolen picture....done all the time) being resold. In this case I doubt any money is coming back. I would also expect to see the same "horse" showing up somewhere else.

If indeed the horse does exist then technically the cheque being cash is her stating that she ACCEPTED the money as a deposit and nothing should be done until either side breaches the contract. In this case the horse should not have been sold but held until the agreed time ( Feb 28. It will be difficult to get the horse at this time however and most courts will simply award a judgement against the sellar in your favour for the $500.00.