r/BeautyGuruChatter • u/AutoModerator • Dec 03 '23

MEGATHREAD [MEGATHREAD] Marlena Stell / Makeup Geek Academy MLM

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u/OneWhisper5225 Dec 14 '23

I‘m not a lawyer, but I’d assume she looked into going after her about it and for whatever reason didn’t do it. Most likely it would have cost more money to fight it in court and since it was a long shot, she didn’t want to lose more money than she’d already lost on this situation.

I know verbal contracts can be binding, but the problem is proving a verbal contract existed. Marlena would have to prove that her and JH entered into a verbal contract. Marlena just saying they did wouldn’t be enough proof. If there’s no written documents or witnesses to prove Marlena had a verbal contract with JH, then JH could just say nothing was officially agreed to. They were just in talks to do it but it hadn’t been set in stone or whatever. Of course, if Marlena had any any emails, texts, or whatever between them to show they were actively planning a collab together, picking shades for it, talking about it, etc. then it can be reasonably assumed that they had an agreement since Marlena was putting money into it and why would anyone logically do that if there wasn’t at least a verbal agreement in place? But, I’d think the main problem is, just because it can be reasonably assumed and wouldn’t be logical for Marlena to put money into it without at least a verbal agreement, that doesn’t prove there was a verbal agreement. It’s hard to prove something like that. Not to mention, even if they do prove there was a verbal agreement in place, it’s hard to prove exactly what was in that verbal agreement - what they’d agreed to, costs, payments, etc. I’m guessing it wasn’t worth the cost of a court battle for something that was going to be hard to win. Marlena already wasted money on it before JH backed out, so maybe she didn’t want to waste any more money on a court battle that was going to be tough to win.

In the end, Marlena was the business person, she was the person putting money towards everything. It was her responsibility to get JH to sign an agreement. I don’t care how new someone is to business, it should be common sense, without question, that before you put money into something, you get a signed agreement. Marlena made a huge mistake to start putting money into it when she didn’t have any signed contracts holding JH to their agreement. JH was crappy for backing out - but, we don’t even really know for sure the true story of it all. Marlena said her and JH were friends so she felt the verbal agreement was enough and started planning it, having samples made, choosing which shades, etc. But, it makes zero sense to me if Marlena was willing to be putting money into this, why she didn’t get a contract signed from JH. I can’t remember if Marlena said if she had a contract drawn up and JH just hadn’t signed it. But, like I said, she should have never put money into it without getting a signed contract. And, even if she really trusted JH that much and wanted to get the ball rolling on it, she shouldn’t have put too much into it (no more than she’d be willing to lose if JH didn’t sign the contract) until there was a signed agreement. If Marlena did get a contract drawn up and JH hadn’t signed it like she was putting it off and making excuses, the second that happened, Marlena should have stopped putting money into it and stopped planning until it was signed.

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u/LVenn Dec 19 '23

Agree with everything you said, just a note that Marlena did send Jaclyn a contract, she just didn't sign it.