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Statute of Limitations[ Parent ] (none / 0) (#4)
by Bill Woodward on Tue Nov 09, 2004 at 02:44:26 PM PDT

All of what follows depends critically on the wording of the form(s) in question. But as a general matter, I can say the following. Whether there's a time lapse problem or not may depend on whether you have a term contract or simply an ongoing service contract (as you would with the electric company). In the latter case, where the customer can end the contract anytime and the contract therefore has no binding "future," most courts would probably view it as having continuing terms that can be changed either way for the future as time goes on. It's as if there were a "new" contract each day with whatever terms were in effect controlling that day's contract. Under this view, either of you could (theoretically) change the terms any time and (if "accepted" by continued service or payment) those terms would bind the future unless someone either changed them back or terminated the contract. I say "theoretically" because it is so unorthodox for a customer to be sending a business a form that it's anyone's guess how a court would respond to that scenario. In any event, if you take this view, there is no time lapse problem. With a term contract, it's probably more complicated. Can either party change the terms once the (say) 3 year cable TV contract forms? If not, then when the contract is perceived to form becomes controlling. In mobile phone service cases I'm familiar with, the vendor actually gets the vendee's signature on the form at the outset. The contract, of course, would probably form then or, at the latest, when the company did not reject the signed form (e.g., after checking the customer's credit). This, of course, makes it easier for the vendor to collect the penalty for early termination but it may, at the same time, make it more difficult for either party to change the terms mid-stream. Again, it depends partly on what the forms say. Given the way businesses distribute these forms in stuffers and (essentially) junk mail that customers are not likely to notice, much less read, sending the form back to a PO box, into an ATM machine, or to a place where a machine opens the mail may create a certain satisfying symmetry. As is the case when businesses send forms to consumers, the odds of the form binding both parties goes up if the sender has some belief that the recipient might actually receive and pay attention to the form.

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