Civil Model Jury Charge 4.10 G. CONTRACT TO BE MEMORIALIZED IN WRITING BILATERAL
CONTRACTS
The defendant contends that the parties
negotiated to the point that the agreement would become final only if and when
the parties signed a formal contract document.
The plaintiff
contends that a final agreement was reached.
Therefore, the
plaintiff has the burden to prove that the parties intended that their
agreement would be final without the signing of a formal contract document.[1]
Parties may
orally, by informal memorandum or by both agree upon all of the essential terms
of the contract and effectively bind themselves to that contract if that is
their intention. This is so even though
they may contemplate the execution of a later formal document to memorialize
their undertaking. The ultimate question
is what did the parties intend. It is
the plaintiff’s burden to prove that the parties reached a final agreement.
[1]Comerata v. Chaumont, Inc., 52 N.J. Super. 299, 305 (App. Div.
1958). See also Morales v. Santiago,
217 N.J. Super. 496, 502 (App. Div.
1987); Berg Agency v. Sleep
World-Willingboro, Inc., 136 N.J
Super. 369, 373-374 (App. Div. 1975); Lahue
v. Pio Costa, 263 N.J. Super.
575, 595-596 (App. Div. 1993); Bistricer
v. Bistricer, 231 N.J. Super.
143, 148-149 (Ch. Div. 1989).
