Supreme Court Case: Marvin V. Wilder

The case Marvin v. Marvin from 1976 helps to set precedent for this case. The Marvin v. Marvin case focused on a non-marital relationship with an oral agreement to share all accumulated property equally. The plaintiff filed suit to enforce the oral contract. The court found that this was an expressed contract and that it should be (passive) enforced. However, the court ruled implied contracts should be (passive) ruled similarly by stating that “contracts may be express or implied … if such agreement can only be shown by the acts and conduct of the parties, interpreted in the light of the subject- matter and of the surrounding circumstances, then the contract is an implied one” (California Civil Jury Instructions). The Forest Park v USA Network case is more similar to the Desny v. Wilder. This is because both cases focus on the reproduction a concept without proper …show more content…
If an implied contract has each element needed for a contract then the implied contract is enforceable under law. Forest Park presented a legal offer when it requested a meeting with Sepiol and when it mailed him the show’s written synopsis and character biographies. Forest Park clearly communicated its offer for Housecall to the prospective buyers at Universal in hopes of having a meeting to sell the concept. The contract is implied (passive) because Sepiol knew “that writer-creat(o)rs pitch creative ideas to prospective purchases with the object of selling those ideas for compensation” and “that it was standard in the entertainment industry for ideas to be pitched with the expectation of compensation in the event of use” (United States Court of Appeals). Meeting with a TV network to pitch an idea and then receiving compensation is an industry standard. USA Network knew that if they published this idea they would need to give compensation to Forest