[conspire] Different legal question, hypothetical

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Paul Zander (paulz at ieee.org):

> Suppose that I knew that someone used to program in PHP.  Now that
> person would be embarrassed if the world at large knew that said
> person used PHP.   After some preliminary discussion, I meet with the
> layer representing said person, sign an agreement that I will not talk
> about PHP and am given payment of $130.  Payment is quickly spent at
> Starbucks.
> 
> Some time later, I realize that although I signed the agreement, the
> other parties have not.  I bound by the agreement not tell that said
> person used PHP?

Wow, that's such a classic Contracts 101 question.

The real first question required is:  Were the required elements present
to create a contract, or not?  It's in the _general_ case a
misconception to think that, merely because there is a blank on a paper
for a signature, that lack of such a signature prevents formation of a
valid contract.  Required contract elements include what is called a
'meeting of the minds', aka evidence of an offer and an acceptance to
the satisfaction of the presiding judge.  A meeting of the minds might
be provable through other evidence, such as _conduct_ of the parties,
where the judge gets convinced that the parties were _acting_ in a
manner suggesting they had reached the required meeting of the minds.

People sometimes get confused about this because _some_ categories of
contract must be evidenced in writing and are subject to rigorous proof
in order to be found valid.  This is covered in the famous 'Statute of
Frauds', hated by first-year law students everywhere almost as much as
Rule Against Perpetuities (which you can mention to anyone who survived
1L aka first-year law school classes and give him/her hives).
Conveyances of real estate title are an example of contract restricted
by the Statute of Frauds.  Show up at the county offices without a
signed written contract claiming you bought some land, and they'll just
laugh at you.

I realise that I've not given you a definitive answer, as it is not
possible without the full set of surrounding facts, and even then it's
up to the judge.  If you or a friend need to deal with any such
real-world legal conundrum, go straight to a competent contract lawyer,
rather than the Internet.