Sorry for missing a week or two but you know time flies when we are having fun.

This week we will explore Chapter 2 of the Maine Consumer Law Guide: Consumer Contracts in Maine

Please remember this information, in detail, is available at the Maine Attorney General's website.

My intent here, as in this column in totality, is to bring you information that will perhaps be of interest to you and allow you an insight into laws that affect our everyday living.

This consumer rights chapter describes the basic contract laws that apply when you make a purchase, it contains information that is crucial in determining your rights and how to enforce them when goods are defective or you suspect some type of wrong doing.

DID YOU KNOW?

We all complain about gas/oil prices. A barrel of crude oil costs about $100 for 42 gallons, which is less than $5 per gallon. Each barrel consists of approximately 19 gallons of gasoline, 10 gallons of diesel fuel, 4 gallons of jet fuel and 9 gallons of miscellaneous petroleum products that includes heating oil.

However, ink you buy for your printer sells for $22.48 per ounce, a 43 ml ink cartridge sells for $32 at your local office products store. Furthermore, one pint of ink would cost $359.63; one quart would cost $719.76; one gallon would cost $2,877 and 43 gallons (the size of a crude oil barrel) would sell for $120,834.

It would cost $43,155 to fill a 15-gallon gas tank in your car with printer ink versus approximately $50 to fill the same tank volume with gas.

A consumer contract is a legally enforceable promise between you and the seller, and the responsibilities of each when goods or services are exchanged. Contracts can be written, oral or even implied. Binding contracts can be for housing leases, purchases of new cars, and the items you may buy from a door-to door salesman.

Common law is a court-made law as opposed to the Legislature passing a statue. Contracts have four elements: an offer, an acceptance, consideration and mutual understanding of the obligations of the parties to the contract.

A contract for the sale of goods costing $500 or more, contracts for the sale of land, contracts that cannot be performed within one year, a contract in which you guarantee to pay the debt of another person, and contracts to pay debts legally discharged in a bankruptcy proceeding MUST BE IN WRITING. The Uniform Commercial Code allows three exceptions to the written contract: you order is custom-made, or you have already paid for goods or services or they have been delivered and accepted, and you admit in court that, in fact, you did have a contract.

Courts often refuse contracts that are significantly unfair and lacking in good faith. Usually they are considered unconscionable contracts when one of the four elements of the contract is explicitly or implicitly missing.

Some contracts are unenforceable: Such as if you are unable to understand the contract for some mentally deficient issue, if you are too young, if the contract calls for an illegal act, if you are tricked into signing, if you are forced to sign, if you sign under undue influence, if both parties make the same mistake, if the contract terms are unconscionable, if the contract contains misleading terms, or if the sales technique the merchant used was so deceptive or the contract was so unfair as to be in violation of the Maine Unfair Trades Practices Act.

The parties to a contract are you and the agent of an employer (employee) or the employer himself (merchant), and the agent must act within his authority. However, there are situations where the merchant can still be held accountable for the employee's actions.

The express warranty can be either oral or in writing, and promises for which the seller or manufacturer specifically make about the product or service. Sometimes both the merchant and the manufacturer give express warranties. UNDER MAINE LAW WHENEVER YOU PURCHASE A NEW OR USED CONSUMER GOOD OR SERVICE (EXCEPT USED CARS) YOU AUTOMATICALLY RECEIVE AN IMPLIED WARRANTY. This is true even when the seller or manufacturer does not make an express warranty. When you do have an express warranty, the implied warranty may provide you with additional coverage and remain in effect even after the written warranty expires. MAINE IS ONE OF THOSE STATES THAT ALLOWS FOR MORE WARRANTY COVERAGE. 

There are two types of warranty of merchantability, which promises that the product you buy is at least of average quality and fit for ordinary use. That being said: a lawn mower must mow.

The warranty of fitness, for a particular purpose as its name implies, promises that the product you buy will be suitable for a specific use. When you buy a product based on the seller's advice that it can be used for a particular purpose, the advice creates an implied warranty of fitness for a particular purpose.

More next week on contracts. Thanks for stopping by.

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Who is Dale Hayward?

Dale Hayward was born and raised in Belfast and Northport, and lives in Rockland.

He graduated from Harford Institute of Accounting in Connecticut and served in the U.S. Air Force from 1966 to 1970. He was a state auditor in Delaware and Maine, where he also owned and operated private accounting practices. From 1978 to 1992 he owned and operated Seaport Office Supply. For the next eight years he drove a tour bus 600,000 miles across the United States and Canada.

Dale holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration, with a major in management and a minor in finance, from the University of Maine. He retired in 2007. He previously presented a consumer talk show on WRFR.

On why he continues to share consumer information, Dale said, "Consumer information is critical for people to survive in this economy and I would like to share my extension knowledge after having researched issues for many years. The format is to provide tips, advice and facts for people to check out further. This is not legal advice and does not carry any promises."