Opinion ID: 1829875
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: law i. statute of frauds

Text: Mississippi's statute of frauds in pertinent part states: An action shall not be brought whereby to charge a defendant or other party: .... (d) upon any agreement which is not to be performed within the space of fifteen months from the making there; or (e) ... unless, in each of said cases, the promise or agreement upon which such action may be brought, or some memorandum or note thereof, shall be in writing, and signed by the party to be charged therewith or signed by some person by him or her thereunto lawfully authorized in writing. Miss. Code Ann. § 15-3-1 (1972). It should be noted that when American Chocolates secured Henco as a customer for Mascot Pecan products, it had fully performed its part of the agreement. There was nothing more for American Chocolates to do. This Court held in Pountaine v. Fletcher, et al., 158 Miss. 720, 126 So. 471 (1930), that: [T]he statute of frauds has no application where there has been a full and complete performance of the contract by one of the contracting parties, and the party so performing may sue upon the contract in a court of law; he is not compelled to abandon the contract and sue in equity or upon a quantum meruit. Also, Gibbons v. Associated Distributors, 370 So.2d 925, 927 (Miss. 1979), [t]he general rule is that the complete performance by one party of an oral contract not to be performed within the statutorily prohibited period  fifteen months  takes the contract outside of the statute of frauds. Also, 37 C.J.S. Statute of Frauds, § 251 (1943); 73 Am.Jur.2d Statute of Frauds, § 533 (1974); Restatement (Second) of Contracts, § 130 (1981); Landry v. Moody Grishman Agency, Inc., 254 Miss. 363, 181 So.2d 134 (1965) (contract executed by performance of both parties not barred by Statute of Frauds); Puget Sound Pulp and Timber Co. v. O'Reilly, 239 F.2d 607 (9th Cir.1956). This Court has also held that where the contract is for an indefinite period with a possibility of performance within fifteen months, it is not within the statute of frauds. Beane v. Bowden, 399 So.2d 1358, 1361 (Miss. 1981); Crabb v. Mid-American Dairymen, Inc., 735 S.W.2d 714 (Mo. 1987) (en banc).