Oral Contract Fails for Indefiniteness
June 24, 2013In 2006, Dr. Tran bought medical equipment on eBay for $14,580 using his Citibank credit card. When the equipment arrived, Dr. Tran found that it was missing a key component so he contacted Citibank to dispute the purchase. In response, Citibank issued two chargebacks: one in October 2006 for $4,580 (which the seller accepted) and one in November 2006 for the remaining $10,000 (which the seller did not accept). Among other things, Tran sued Citibank for breach of an oral agreement to “timely” issue the credit card chargebacks together. The Court of Appeals found that Tran had not put forward any evidence showing that Citibank agreed to issue the chargebacks “by a certain date, within a certain time frame, or at the same time.” Thus, the Court held that the oral contract alleged by Dr. Tran failed for indefiniteness.
