Buckles Management, LLC v. InvestorDigs, LLC
United States District Court for the District of Colorado
728 F. Supp. 2d 1183 (D. Colo. 2010)
After InvestorDigs (defendant) leased space from Focus Business Park (plaintiff) without a written lease and allegedly failed to pay rent, the parties' business relationship deteriorated; at a meeting to unwind the relationship, plaintiffs claimed the parties agreed InvestorDigs would provide a note payable over five years, memorialized only through emails between one defendant and InvestorDigs employee Fred Heigold listing purported settlement terms. When the plaintiffs sued to enforce both the settlement and the underlying lease, the defendants argued the statute of frauds barred enforcement of the multi-year settlement agreement because no signed writing existed.
Whether an alleged settlement agreement requiring payments over a five-year period must be in writing and signed by the party against whom enforcement is sought to satisfy the statute of frauds.