This firm’s recent appeal to the N.C. Supreme Court in Smith Debnam v. Muntjan was recently profiled in a number of national media websites. One of the dissenting Justices downplayed the importance of the case, writing the following:
“I expect this case to have very little impact on our statute of frauds jurisprudence. Given the unusual facts, this Court’s holding is quite factbound.”
Nonetheless, when interviewed for an article for Law.com, Mark Hayes provided the following explanation for why this case was important:
“In this new economy where baby boomers are having to step in to help their children with financial dealings, they may find themselves obliged to contracts that they never agreed to, and then the bank of landlord starts pursuing the parents unfairly.”
The case involved a young man who engaged a law firm to help him with a lawsuit filed against him as a contractor and home builder. The man’s father participated in some of the communications between the firm and the contractor. When the contractor could not pay the legal bill, the firm turned its collection efforts to the father.
The full article is available HERE although the full text is behind a paywall for subscribers only.