Reply With Quote
A Legal Screw-Up by Michael Cohen Should Give Stormy Daniels the Right to Tell Her Story
As Scott Pilutik noted in Slate, one relevant concept here is the “statute of frauds,”
which “requires that certain types of contracts must be signed in writing by both parties.”
But there’s another, more straightforward reason the contract might be unenforceable if Trump didn’t sign it.
Trump’s attorney, Michael Cohen, set up a company called Essential Consultants LLC to agree to the deal with Clifford.
But according to Super, an expert in contract law,
there isn’t anything in the agreement to indicate Essential Consultants is authorized to agree to essential promises on Trump’s behalf.
“Just because I’m your lawyer doesn’t mean I can give away your rights unless it says I’m authorized to do that,”
If other specific abilities, like waiving the right to sue on Trump’s behalf, aren’t spelled out, that would seem to mean Essential Consultants LLC doesn’t possess them.
when Cohen signed the contract, he appears to have changed “Attorney for DD” to “Attorney for Essential Consultants, LLC.”
Here, Cohen appears to be rejecting the notion that he is acting as DD’s attorney.
there is a separate line on the contract explicitly for Trump’s signature.
Super believes it can thus be argued in court that it was “implied that the parties thought that his signature was needed [for the release of these claims].”
if Clifford agreed to this deal on the basis of these essential promises by Trump and he never legally agreed to those promises, then the contract is unenforceable and should be considered moot.
“If the contract was money for promises, then you wouldn’t need Trump’s signature,” Super said.
“But they didn’t draft it that way. They made it money and promises for promises.
So she didn’t get her promises, so they didn’t complete the deal.”
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/...her-story.html
STABLE GENIUS
