There was a time in this country when someone’s word was his bond. When I ran a business, if a salesperson made a mistake in accepting an order (price, delivery, specification) my company would attempt to fully honor our commitment, even if we lost money or it hurt other business. From my somewhat “old fashioned” perspective, an agreement is an agreement. In this case I have little sympathy for a salesman accepting a customer order and the owner later rejecting it because of his personal convictions. Contracts are contracts.
Had I been the judge in this case I would not have addressed the “discrimination” aspect. I’d simply have ruled the vendor entered into a contract with the customer and the vendor should comply. I don’t see the deposit not being paid as a reason to exit the contract, unless the verbal or written contract specified the amount of deposit and the date by which it needed to be paid. Shame on the vendor for not requiring a deposit at the time the order was entered or the vendor’s salesperson for not collecting the deposit when he/she accepted the order.
With respect to the proposition there was no contract because of the opportunity to pay less for the shirts, I disagree. Even written contracts can be changed after the fact but both parties must agree to the change. A contract is still valid even if one of the parties is attempting to renegotiate the agreement.
With respect to the future of this business, if the owner has a requirement that he must approve all orders before they are valid, this condition should be specified at the time the customer places the order and the review/response time should be quick, not several days or weeks.
If I were the owner of a business, and did not want to accept an order, I’d simply tell the customer I didn’t have the capacity to fulfill the order by the requested delivery date. When I managed businesses “limited capacity” was my standard answer for rejecting custom orders I didn’t want to service. The owner or manager of a business determines how to employ the production capacity of the business, including reserving the capacity for orders that may never materialize. As long as the owner don’t state publicly or privately he is really rejecting the order for other reasons, the production capacity explanation is impossible to challenge.
Government regulates business. Businessmen must follow the law or risk jail and fines for failing to comply. Whether or not the law is just, silly or perceived by the businessman as unconstitutional it doesn’t matter. Rightly or wrongly small business people offended by homosexuality are going to be crushed if they continue to fight the leviathan head on. Better to simply reject the orders that one finds offensive, with what is a justifiable reason, than lose your business fighting a battle the progressive dominated federal and state courts will not allow you to win. If a business chooses to fight the battle by going against the law, the owner must understand the odds of winning are long and the cost of losing can be high.
I’d take the order and make a big mistake...too late to repair in time for the event.
I don’t see the deposit not being paid as a reason to exit the contract, unless the verbal or written contract specified the amount of deposit and the date by which it needed to be paid.
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nor do I...
That’s why I said it could be explained..meaning could possibly be etc..
there may have been a reason why it wasn’t paid right then when the shirts were ordered..apparently the buyer did try to pay it..he just needed to know how much it was..
However there is another level to this..too..
It might have involved color etc..which could have effected the price...
maybe the owner had to see the order and the requirements to finalize a price..which would have determined the deposit of whatever % was asked by the business..
so this contract may have been accepted by both parties and an estimate may have been given already ...the buyer came back also to try to change that down ..
theres more to this story than just “Youre a homosexual and you want me to print you up 500 TShirts with this design ??? Nope I don’t do designs that are homosexual in nature..(etc)”