Also known as: par bouche · parol · oral · by word of mouth
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A form of communication accomplished through spoken words. The phrase identifies statements or agreements delivered by mouth rather than in writing or other permanent medium.
Phoebe Park sold land to Philip Powell under a contract containing a merger clause. After closing, Phoebe orally assured Philip that she would remove an encroaching fence within thirty days. When the fence remained, Philip could not enforce the assurance because the oral statement per bouche never appeared in the deed.
Priscilla Parks noticed the deposition of Paul Peterson. The parties proceeded without a court order. Priscilla examined Paul per bouche for four hours, and the court reporter transcribed every spoken answer under Rule 30.
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Parker Phillips testified that Pavel Petrov shouted an accusation during an argument. The prosecutor offered the shout to prove the fact asserted. Because the words were spoken per bouche, the court treated them as a statement under Rule 801(a).
Premier Manufacturing orally leased warehouse space to Precision Tools for six months. The term did not exceed the local statute of frauds period. The parties therefore created a valid landlord-tenant relationship per bouche under the controlling rule.
Patriot Insurance and Prism Analytics signed a final written sales agreement. Before signing, the parties had discussed per bouche an additional delivery schedule. The court allowed evidence of that oral term to explain the writing under UCC 2-202.
After arrest, Paul Peterson made an oral admission to a known federal agent. The government intended to use the admission at trial. Upon request, the government disclosed the substance of the statement per bouche under Rule 16.
An oral lease per bouche creates a valid landlord-tenant relationship when its duration does not exceed the period specified in the controlling statute of frauds.
A court may admit evidence of a prior or contemporaneous oral agreement per bouche to explain or supplement a writing that was not intended as a complete and exclusive statement of the parties' agreement.
A defamatory statement made per bouche is ordinarily classified as slander rather than libel unless additional factors such as premeditation, breadth of dissemination, or persistence give it the harmful qualities of written words.
Upon the defendant's request, the government must disclose the substance of any relevant oral statement made per bouche before or after arrest in response to interrogation by a person the defendant knew was a government agent.
…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…