About Unconscionable Contracts

A court may refuse to enforce an unreasonable contract even though no evidence of fraud can be produced.

Consider the nationally recognized case of Williams v. Walker-Thomas Furniture Co., 350 F.2d 455 (D.C. Cir. 1965). In this case a consumer purchased furniture and appliances from a furniture store at various times, on an installment contract between 1957 and 1962. When the consumer defaulted after  a purchase of a stereo in 1962, the store filed an action to repossess everything purchased over the 5 year period.   The court refused to honor this condition of the contract because of unequal bargaining power between the parties and because the contractual provisions for repossession were held to be unconscionable.