Also known as: verbally · oral · spoken
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An utterance whose legal effect arises from the words spoken rather than from any assertion of fact. The statement is received because the utterance itself creates, modifies, or discharges rights or duties.
Virgil Vaughn sold land to Veronica Villanueva under a contract containing a merger clause. After closing, Veronica sought to enforce Virgil's earlier verbal assurance about boundary fencing that was omitted from the deed. The court held the verbal assurance unenforceable because the merger doctrine and parol evidence rule discharged any prior oral promises not reflected in the deed.
Vincent Valdez noticed the oral deposition of a non-party witness without obtaining a court order. The witness appeared under subpoena. Because the parties had not stipulated otherwise and no leave was required under the default rule, the deposition proceeded as a proper oral examination.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Vera Vu told a bank officer, 'I personally guarantee my brother's loan.' The bank relied on the statement and disbursed funds. At trial the verbal guarantee was admitted as a verbal act that itself created the obligation, not as hearsay offered to prove any past fact.
Vivian Velez orally leased a storefront to Viktor Voronin for six months. Because the term did not exceed the period specified in the controlling statute of frauds, the oral lease validly created a landlord-tenant relationship without a writing.
Velocity Logistics sent a written confirmation of an oral equipment sale that Vertex Pharmaceuticals signed and returned. When Vertex later attempted to introduce evidence of a different delivery date discussed orally before the writing, the court excluded the evidence under the parol evidence rule because the writing was intended as the final expression of agreed terms.
After arrest, Vasquez Imports' employee made an oral statement to a known federal agent during interrogation. Upon the defendant's request the government disclosed the substance of that statement because it intended to use the statement at trial.
A statement is a verbal act when the utterance itself creates or shifts legal rights or obligations. The statement is admitted because it has independent legal significance, not because it is offered to prove the truth of any matter asserted.
Supporting sources
Yes. A merger clause combined with the doctrine of merger into the deed discharges prior oral promises not reflected in the deed, subject only to narrow exceptions such as fraud or collateral agreements.
A party may depose any person by oral questions without leave of court unless the deposition would exceed numerical limits, the deponent is confined, or other conditions listed in Rule 30(a)(2) are present.
An oral lease is enforceable if its duration does not exceed the period specified in the controlling statute of frauds, thereby creating a valid landlord-tenant relationship under the Restatement rule.
Terms set forth in a writing intended as the final expression of the parties' agreement may not be contradicted by evidence of any prior agreement or contemporaneous oral agreement, though they may be explained or supplemented by course of performance, course of dealing, or usage of trade.
…in the Comment to the ALI's Model Penal Code § 207.11, at 158 and nn. 35-37 (Tent. Draft No. 9, 1959). [^maj-51]: Tr. of Oral Rearg. 20-21. [^maj-52]: Tr. of Oral Rearg. 24. [^maj-53]: We are not aware that in the taking of any census under this clause, a fetus has ever been counted. [^maj-54]: When Texas urges…