The Clog from OzSamuel Goldwyn - Verbal Contracts
August 18th 2006 02:00
"A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on" - Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn was a widely known motion picture producer who died in 1974. He was a partner of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Hollywood film studio, which bears the famous “Leo The Lion” logo.
For this quote - in a business sense, I agree with Goldwyn. It’s probably impossible to make an official verbal contract that is legally worth anything in the end. But regarding social, day-to-day verbal contracts – I think they should be worth something. It is very rare that I’ll promise my mum to wash her car and totally lie to her face. Even if I don’t totally agree to a verbal contract such as this I’ll at least have half my heart in it.
But then there are those things you just know you’re not going to do but you enter a verbal contract anyway because when you do defy it you won’t be sent to prison. “Yes Mum, I’ll clean up the dog crap outside!” The worst you’ll get from disregarding this promise is Mum nagging you for the rest of the week. Which, come to think of it, is probably a fate worse than gaol...
Samuel Goldwyn was a widely known motion picture producer who died in 1974. He was a partner of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Hollywood film studio, which bears the famous “Leo The Lion” logo.
For this quote - in a business sense, I agree with Goldwyn. It’s probably impossible to make an official verbal contract that is legally worth anything in the end. But regarding social, day-to-day verbal contracts – I think they should be worth something. It is very rare that I’ll promise my mum to wash her car and totally lie to her face. Even if I don’t totally agree to a verbal contract such as this I’ll at least have half my heart in it.
But then there are those things you just know you’re not going to do but you enter a verbal contract anyway because when you do defy it you won’t be sent to prison. “Yes Mum, I’ll clean up the dog crap outside!” The worst you’ll get from disregarding this promise is Mum nagging you for the rest of the week. Which, come to think of it, is probably a fate worse than gaol...
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