Cengage Advantage Books: Law for Business 18th Edition by John Ashcroft ,Janet Ashcroft

Exercise 15

When the concluding question in a case problem can be answered simply yes or no, stare the legal principle or rule of law that supports your answer.
Nina Parkhurst owned a ranch and asked her son, Doug Boykin, to move to it and manage it for her. Boykin and his wife moved to the ranch and managed it for several years. They talked with Parkhurst many times, urging her to transfer 49 percent of the ranch to them. Parkhurst said she had thought and talked about possibly transferring the ranch but had made no decision. The Boykins claimed they were on the ranch under an oral contract with Parkhurst and that the oral contract also entitled them to a 49 percent interest in the ranch. She sued them and asked the court to declare that there was no contract. Was there a contract?