Are perpetual contracts enforceable? Contracts generally have terminations clauses allowing either party to eventually end the obligation imposed on them by a contract. E.g. the buyer may have to notify the seller of termination in writing; the service may, at its sole discretion, terminate a user for breaking the rules; the agreement may terminate on a specific date and so on. In principle, a contract could be written in such a way that the service has the right to terminate the agreement, but the customer cannot terminate the agreement (so they are stuck with that cell service provider for life). Assume that the contracts in question are contracts of adhesion (take it or leave it, customer). In the scenario, (1) there may be an explicit statement that the customer is perpetually bound or (2) there is no statement regarding termination by the customer: I assume the answer is different depending on whether the contract is silent. Is there any statutory or case law that addresses the enforceability of perpetual contracts (general common law, unless the answer is too jurisdiction in which case US)? I understand that a contract can obligate a customer to do something in exchange for receiving X, so I'm not asking if quid can be extinguished when there exists a viable quo within the statute if limits. I am also not asking about perpetual copyright licenses.
Yes There is no general legal prohibition on perpetual contracts. What you describe is not a perpetual contract A perpetual contract is one where at least one parties obligations are indefinitely ongoing and there is no mechanism in the contract (outside breach or repudiation) for terminating it. The contract you describe has a mechanism for termination albeit only available to one party. Perpetual contracts can be entered into knowingly and willingly - most perpetuities, where a person leaves the income on an investment to a university or charity forever subject to conditions, are of this type. Or they can be entered into accidentally, for example, a fixed term contract with an automatic renewal where the renewal term is not specified is a perpetual contract. The important point is there must be no explicit mechanism in the contract for bringing the contract to an end for it to be a perpetual contract. In commercial arrangements, courts may imply a term that the parties can terminate on reasonable notice but this is subject to all the normal limitations. Your example As described, because there is an explicit term allowing termination, this is not a perpetual contract. Such a contract would be subject to the normal common law doctrine of unconscionably (which it almost certainly is) and, in some jurisdictions, consumer protection laws against unfair contract terms.
Am I right to assume that once the notice has been issued to the other party, me and the client still work on the project for 14 days until the notice period expires and that the client is required to pay for the work that has been done in those 14 days In the absence of any other wording to the contrary, a contract continues as normal up until the day of termination. The fact that a party has given notice to terminate merely establishes the termination date, unless the notice clause says something different. Note that there is nothing to stop you drafting a clause which explicitly states this. Indeed, it is often useful to explicitly state things which are already implied as it helps to avoid any dispute from arising in the first place.
I am unfamiliar with a "perpetual contract" and that phase does not appear in any reported appellate court decision of the State of Oklahoma. However, usually unpaid utility bills do constitute a lien against the property that is enforceable against a subsequent purchaser, which has the same practical effect. This kind of obligation is also sometimes described as an "encumbrance". Usually, in an arms length sale of real estate through real estate agents, a title insurance company is hired and is responsible for determining if there are any outstanding liens, pro-rating utility bills, pro-rating property taxes, etc. at closing. If the title company fails to find a lien and there is one, the title company is responsible for paying off the lien that it failed to find (although it can often force the previous owner to indemnify it for the payment it has to make). It could be that since water service was not currently being delivered, that the title company did not search in the manner that it should have to find this lien, or it could be that there was no title company used and so no one ever checked. Also, if the property was conveyed with a "warranty deed" such a deed contains a promise from the seller that there are no liens or encumbrances not listed on the face of the deed that have to be paid, and the seller has liability for breach of the warranty of title. But, if the property was conveyed with a "quitclaim deed" there is no such warranty.
This depends on the representations that were made at the time of forming the contract, the prior knowledge of possible interference, and the nature of the interference by the third party. If the interference, or likely interference was known: To you, the vendor, and you made representations that your service would work despite this, or you did not disclose this, then you may have sold a product that was not fit for purpose and the client may be entitled to statutory relief, or may not be required to fulfil their contractual obligations To you and the client, and you notified them that this may prevent use of your service, and despite your advice they decided to enter into the contract, then the client is unlikely to be entitled to relief and must fulfil their contractual obligations To only the client, then they are unlikely to be entitled to relief and must fulfil their contractual obligations If the interference is of a nature such that the third party was aware of your contractual relationship, caused such an interference resulting in a breach of contract, and was not entitled to create such a breach, then the third party may have committed the tort of economic interference (generally known as tortious interference) and either you or your client may be entitled to seek damages, if any.
Under normal common-law principles, she has provided you a gift and you have accepted it, which transfers the property to you unconditionally. You also made a gratuitous promise that you might attempt to repay her. That promise has no legal effect as a contract, both because the promise is so uncertain as to be unenforceable, and because it is not supported by mutual consideration (i.e., she has not promised to do in anything in exchange for your promise to pay you back). If the case is presented with these facts, a court should therefore deny her request to force your repayment.
This is covered in §§ 563-564 of the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, specifically for the death of a tenant. § 563 BGB: Household members continue your contract in your place, with a hierarchy of spouses before children before other members. They can each declare within a month that they decline to continue the contract. The landlord needs a grave objection against a person to decline continuation within a month after the above month. § 563a BGB: The same rules apply to any surviving tenants. § 564 BGB: If the contract is not continued with anyone living in or renting, then the contract is continued with the deceased's heirs. But in this case, both sides can equally terminate the contract within a month. All deadlines from this section appear to start upon the party receiving notice (of the death / the fact that they are continuing the contract). The death of your landlord has no immediate consequence on your contract.
TOS are a contract. If you have a contract through the App, you have incorporated the TOS as a term of your contract. Contracts mean what they say they do, what you are thinking of as "basic contract law" is actual just an ordinary and customary term that people in your industry usually make a part of the contract, not contract law itself.
A settlement is fundamentally a contract where parties A and B promise to do certain things (one of them being "stop litigating"). A court order is an enforceable order to do something. A contract cannot be directly enforced (where force is used to make a person comply), it requires a court order for actual enforcement. The conditions of a contract might be enforceable, but you can't get the sheriff to come out based just on a contract. It appears that you got to the "facilitation" phase where the parties talk about the issue and the CRT case manager talks to the parties in neutral terms, aiming for an agreement. If you don't reach an agreement, the Tribunal Decision Process escalates the matter. Under the decision process, the CRT member makes a decision, and it can be enforced in court. They state that "For a $25 fee, the CRT can turn your agreement into an order, if both parties agree that an order should be issued. This is called a “consent resolution order”." I suppose that you did not go through that step, and you only have an agreement. So you would need a separate court process to get a court order. Because everything that you did in this negotiation phase is confidential, if you want CRT to give you something that is enforceable, you have to present the case from the beginning, since they don't have access to what has happened before. The problem in your account is that a settlement has to be reached by yourselves – possibly with the assistance of the CRT case manager. I assume you did actually get a settlement (agreement) with the landlord, but have not filed for a consent resolution order. It may be that the case is too old for you to just pay the $25, and it does require agreement by the other party. Read their FAQ about how cases end.