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Facts:
- I worked for private music school for about 6 month as a part-time
teacher, about 2-3 hrs per week.
- I had signed an consulting agreement, as an independet contractor,
which specifies that I shall provide the company with written schedule
and the company will do its best to assign students to me without any
obligation of minimum payments. There is also no minimum number of
hours that I have to be available for teaching.
- The agreement has TERMINATION CLAUSE that effectively says: (a) the
contract can be terminated by company with or without cause, with two
weeks notice, (b) the contract can be terminated by contractor only
in case of physical or mental disability.
- I was paid per student-lesson. In the begining I had 6
student-lessons per week, but that number gradually decreased and in
July I had only one and in August none. Last week I sent an
resignation letter.
- The company threatens to sue for damages including advertising for
new teacher, refund of fees to students etc, refering to the
termination clase. Contract expires in August 2004.
- I know that I made a huge mistake when I signed the agreement
without full understanding of the meaning of termination clause (I
thought it was mutual right to terminate with two weeks notice).
Question.
Is such an imbalanced termination clause in the contract enforceable
by court? Especially in the light that I am not guaranted anything in
return.
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In article <854a4699.0308281109.16b01d17@posting.google.com>,
alex_ns@yahoo.com (alex) wrote:
Facts:
- I worked for private music school for about 6 month as a part-time
teacher, about 2-3 hrs per week.
- I had signed an consulting agreement, as an independet contractor,
which specifies that I shall provide the company with written schedule
and the company will do its best to assign students to me without any
obligation of minimum payments. There is also no minimum number of
hours that I have to be available for teaching.
- The agreement has TERMINATION CLAUSE that effectively says: (a) the
contract can be terminated by company with or without cause, with two
weeks notice, (b) the contract can be terminated by contractor only
in case of physical or mental disability.
- I was paid per student-lesson. In the begining I had 6
student-lessons per week, but that number gradually decreased and in
July I had only one and in August none. Last week I sent an
resignation letter.
- The company threatens to sue for damages including advertising for
new teacher, refund of fees to students etc, refering to the
termination clase. Contract expires in August 2004.
- I know that I made a huge mistake when I signed the agreement
without full understanding of the meaning of termination clause (I
thought it was mutual right to terminate with two weeks notice).
Question.
Is such an imbalanced termination clause in the contract enforceable
by court? Especially in the light that I am not guaranted anything in
return.
Generally, contracts are not voidable because one party has a big
advantage over the other, or because a party later regrets making a bad
deal. Courts don't like to play businessman - as long as both sides
voluntarily entered into the deal, it's likely to be enforceable.
The answer, which I'm sure you don't want to hear, would be to consult an
attorney before entereing into the agreement. But you may want to seek
out legal advice about what options you may have now. This post isn't
intended to be legal advice.
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The music school promised, according to your words,"to do its best to
assign students to me".If you think that the school, has not, in fact,
"done it's best", you can avoid this termination clause and counter-sue
for breach of contract because of the intentional failure of the music
school to do the same. The music school may have , in fact, repudiated
it's contract with the result that you may have have the right to
terminate the contract and sue for damages.
I am not an attorney. I suggest that you consult an attorney with regard
to this matter.
Mr. C.V. Compton Shaw, R.N., CLA
alex wrote:
Facts:
- I worked for private music school for about 6 month as a part-time
teacher, about 2-3 hrs per week.
- I had signed an consulting agreement, as an independet contractor,
which specifies that I shall provide the company with written schedule
and the company will do its best to assign students to me without any
obligation of minimum payments. There is also no minimum number of
hours that I have to be available for teaching.
- The agreement has TERMINATION CLAUSE that effectively says: (a) the
contract can be terminated by company with or without cause, with two
weeks notice, (b) the contract can be terminated by contractor only
in case of physical or mental disability.
- I was paid per student-lesson. In the begining I had 6
student-lessons per week, but that number gradually decreased and in
July I had only one and in August none. Last week I sent an
resignation letter.
- The company threatens to sue for damages including advertising for
new teacher, refund of fees to students etc, refering to the
termination clase. Contract expires in August 2004.
- I know that I made a huge mistake when I signed the agreement
without full understanding of the meaning of termination clause (I
thought it was mutual right to terminate with two weeks notice).
Question.
Is such an imbalanced termination clause in the contract enforceable
by court? Especially in the light that I am not guaranted anything in
return.
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