# Has anyone ever had a right of first refusal stand up in court



## Acadianartist (Apr 21, 2015)

Nope. There is zero obligation to honor such a clause. Horses, from a legal perspective, are property. A sale contract means the ownership has been transferred to somene else, and with ownership comes all the rights associated including resale.


----------



## QtrBel (May 31, 2012)

I would say it all depends on the strength of the written contract, the states statutes of fraud, on the value of the animal and whether it is financially worth pursuing. Length of time also counts and would depend on the leniency of the judge. If there is no time period listed then within two years is the length of what I have heard of one being even considered. This was for a high dollar competition animal and it was refused because the original owner was determined to be looking for payment based on the training and competition wins the new owner put on the horse and that increased value was not covered in the contract. The original owner was stuck with the lawyers fees and court costs that were greater than the value the original sale was for.


----------



## AtokaGhosthorse (Oct 17, 2016)

Hard lesson learned by my daughter: Just because an oral contract is legally binding in our state, if you care about your horse at all, or think even remotely you'll come to regret selling them - just don't. 

Daughter sold Oops' momma, Nope to a girl who was desperately looking for a short horse with a smooth gait to ride while she was in the early stages of her pregnancy. She cozied up to daughter... daughter sold NOpe to her for 400.00 because she felt sorry for her... lots of breaking heart, I can't ride my hot barrel horses, boo hoo, I just need a sweet horse to ride on some low key trails and buddy up to in the pasture, blahblahblah.

Daughter sells Nope with the handshake first right of refusal, girl promised to sell her back when she couldn't ride her any more due to pregnancy.

Three days later, Nope is on CL as a SUPER SAFE kids horse, super sweet (SHE WAS A REARING HEIFER), and that she was pregnant and couldn't ride any more, and wanted her to go to a good home... and listed for 1500.00 IIRC... because she was this super sweet kid's horse... she even took pretty pictures of her 4 year old daughter barefoot in a summer dress with flowers in one hand and a lead rope and Nope in the other.

Daughter immediately wanted to know WTH? Said sell her right back! I still have your money! New owner laughed, said but I have this feed bill and I'm not burning gas to bring her back. Me: I'll give you 50 bucks for two bags of feed and come get her.

She told daughter if she wanted her back, she had to pay the 1500.00.

We never saw Nope again. Still don't know what happened to her, but all heck broke loose when daughter copied the ad, took her photos, and made an ad of her own on CL warning people she was a cranky mare that liked to rear and buck, and was absolutely NOT a kid's horse as the new owner suggested. She was also winded... and needed her coggins and vax... girl claimed she was UTD on vax and coggins. That set off a pile of FB drama, culminating with the mom of the girl calling ME a crackhead and an inbred hillbilly on a public forum and also said I have no idea what I'm doing with horses and we ruined all our horses (Whom she's never met and knows nothing about)

What she didn't know is my husband was her husband's parole officer at the time. She also didn't know it would get her AND her daughter quietly blacklisted locally with the horse people we know, the rodeo stock owners, etc. She shot herself and her daughter in the foot with her antics and insanity...

But we still. never. saw. Nope. Again. 

And there wasn't a thing my daughter could do about it. She regrets it to this day. Nope was her first horse, and she gave us Oops, who's a blessing and a joy to have, our first foal born to us, ever, and that's what we have to keep in mind... a lesson learned, and appreciate what you have, and if you think you may have regrets, even a tiny chance? Don't sell and think you can get them back. It doesn't work that way. Find a way to make it work.


----------

