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  Discussion on How binding is a lease?
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Posted on Friday, Jan 5, 2001 - 2:44 pm:

A friend of mine who is not very experienced with horses recently leased a horse to use as she learned dressage. In the arena, the horse does fine. However she took him out for a ride and he bolted on her. We've also found out that the last person who owned the horse is in Shepherd Spinal Clinic for back injuries sustained when he was thrown off this horse.

the current owners are trying their best to get my friend to buy this horse, rather than lease it. I think they just want to unload a dangerous animal. Oh, and the only vet they want to check out this horse is their own vet. Is there any way for her to get OUT of the lease?

Dawn Adams

Posted on Friday, Jan 5, 2001 - 5:20 pm:

Well, I'm not a lawyer, but a contract is a contract.

But first, as far as I know, a contract must have an end date or specified period, otherwise it ain't a contract. It should also have terminations clauses - so get your friend to look there first.

Next, I would check to see if the contract has any liability clauses. If not, then your friend should very officially notify the owners that if anything happens to her, she will consider them responsible and sue them. Faced with this, they may be willing to cancel the agreement.

But if none of that works, then it probably is up to your friend to decide what is more important - the lease money or her well being.

But really, we all do less than intelligent things in the horse world, and sometimes you just can't protect your friends - all you can do is be there when they realize their mistake...

Good luck,
Cheryl

Posted on Friday, Jan 5, 2001 - 6:48 pm:

Funny, from a lawyer's perspective, the answer is "a lease isn't binding at all . . . because it's up to the other side to take the initiative to sue to enforce it." With the standard disclaimer that I can't provide legal advice to someone whom I don't represent and haven't spoken with, let me pass along this info. Basically, your friend can say "I'm not leasing your horse anymore because it is dangerous." Then it's up to the owners to decide whether they want to bother to go to court to get the money. So what's the risk to your friend if they do? If there is a termination clause in the lease (e.g., "60 days notice") then your friend's liability probably is limited to those 60 days worth of lease payments, even if she were sued. If there's no termination provision and it's a fixed-term lease, then the owners could sue for the balance of the lease. But even then, your friend's exposure may be limited because the owners have a duty to "mitigate damages"; that is, to minimize their own losses by finding someone else to lease the horse ASAP. Thus, they would probably not be able to recover the full value of the lease even if they were to go to court.

And there are other legal factors that should dissuade the owners from suing. Your friend could argue that the owners breached the lease first by failing to provide an animal that was fit for its intended purpose (a lawyer would call this a "breach of the implied warranty of fitness"). A judge would not likely be sympathetic to the argument that someone should be forced to continue leasing a dangerous mount. And depending on the discussions that preceded the lease, she may also have a decent argument that the lease was procured by the owners' fraud (i.e., a misrepresentation as to the animal's suitability and safety) and therefore is invalid. This would be particularly convincing if the owners knew that she is an inexperienced rider. Heck, if she wanted to be really bold, she could threaten to sue them to get back the lease payments she has already made! And finally, Cheryl's point is a good one: the owners would be risking liability if they "refused" to let her out of the lease after she expressed safety concerns (although they would argue that no one made her ride her horse, lease notwithstanding).

I would be surprised if this one can't be worked out once your friend expresses a very clear intention not to lease this horse anymore. Certainly she needn't sacrifice her safety and enjoyment for fear of possible legal ramifications.
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