Oral Contract Barred by Statute of Frauds

On May 4, 2017, the First Department issued a decision in Galopy Corp. Intl., N.V. v. Deutsche Bank, A.G., 2017 NY Slip Op. 03599, holding that a claim based on an oral contract should have been dismissed based on the statute of frauds, explaining:

The breach of contract claim is barred by the statute of frauds. The alleged oral contract had a settlement date of July 10, 2011, and therefore could not be performed within a year. The possibility of its being terminated earlier does not remove the contract from the scope of the statute of frauds. Unlike the situation in Financial Structures Ltd. v UBS AG (77 AD3d 417 [1st Dept 2010]), which involved an oral agreement with methods of acceleration that would advance the period of fulfillment, the termination provision in this case unwound and canceled the transaction.

(Internal quotations and citations omitted).