breach of verbal contract

my mom is already negotiating with person1 (stranger) to buy her stall in the market, now, person2(mom's friend) overheard the conversation and offered my mom to buy her stall at a higher price, they had a VERBAL agreement of the sale, and made a downpayment . person1 already bought another stall in the market. Now person2 backed out from the sale; asking my mom to give her back her downpayment. My mom now is left with an unsold market stall. Do we have any options of legally making her liable for the loss of sale. thank you. do we really owe her the downpayment back? thank you.

Verbal agreements are binding between the two involved parties, and that is in our Civil Code. The downpayment should form part of the full payment for the stall price, and should not be returned.

The 2nd buyer cannot back out from the sale since there was an agreement already made and she can be held liable for breach of contract (or have the courts enforce the verbal agreement). However, enforcing this agreement may be difficult since it is hard to prove the existence of a verbal agreement and we can only rely on testimonies and other corroborative evidences to back up your claim.

What is the reason as to why the sale did not go through? Di ba talaga pwede matuloy yung sale kahit kausapin nyo ng mabuti yung 2nd buyer?

Patulong kayo sa Public Attorney's Office (PAO) kung sakaling kelangan nyo ng libreng legal advice.

Even IF it can be proven enough (by person1 and downpayment) in a court case,
I would NOT go to court for such case, because such cost much and take much time. In many cases losers of cases CAN'T PAY anyway, then kind of BOTH sides lose...
But the downpayment can be KEPT, because it's ment as a kind of reservation fee, when a sale isn't paid fully.
=Your mother can get the downpayment PLUS FULL pay if she sell to someone else.

But to add chance to keep the FRIEND,, your mother can give the friend CHOICE between:
1. Buy it so the downpayment isn't lost
2. Or lose the downpatment.

Try reading this, just in case you still have other contract-related questions in your mind. https://www.alburovillanueva.com/contracts.