If it didn’t happen in writing . . . it didn’t happen. That’s what the California Court of Appeal recently told plaintiffs seeking to avoid foreclosure. According to Lisa Yun and Alejandro Moreno onSheppard Mullin’s Financial Institutions Blog, the top California court ruled that an oral promise to modify a loan was not valid.
Parties in a commercial dispute reached an oral agreement in mediation, but the lack of a signed settlement agreement resulted in litigation. The New Jersey Supreme Court ultimately upheld the oral agreement, but established a requirement that future mediated settlements must be written agreements signed before the mediation ends. The Court noted that the plaintiff could have avoided enforcement of the oral agreement simply by relying on the confidentiality of mediation. Instead, the plaintiff engaged...
