Tagged: Scrooge McDuck

MR. McDUCK SCROOGED HIS COURAGE TO THE TRICKING PLACE

All of Scrooge McDuck’s arch-nemesees … Nemesissies… Numismatists? All the dastardly deed doers of Duckburg teamed up to take down Uncle Scrooge. Flintheart Glomgold, John D. Rockerduck, Magica De Spell, and the Beagle Boys all working together. Over the course of Uncle Scrooge # 13 and 14, they actually managed, working together, to do what none of them had ever been able to do alone. They got everything from Scrooge. His property, his businesses, his three cubic acres of money, his money bin, his number one dime. Even his stake in the lawsuit he filed against some johnny-come-lately named Ebeneezer. Scrooge was broke, destitute, well off from being well-off even.

But that was issues 13 and 14. The first two parts of a four-part story. Issue 14  saw Magica run off with all three cubic acres of Scrooge’s case and in issue 15, Scrooge reacquired it from her. Scrooge had physical possession of the cash, but he didn’t have title to it or anything else he had once owned. Then came issue 16, the fourth-part of the four-part story and guess what?

If you guessed Scrooge gets everything back you’d be…

Well, let’s see.

Scrooge convinced Rockerduck that Scrooge had died by having Donald give a fake interview about Scrooge disappearing while on a quest to rebuild his fortune. Then Scrooge pretended to be his own ghost and convinced Rockerduck that he shouldn’t trust Glomgold and that to protect himself, he should bring in a third partner. Someone so rich he’d be on equal financial footing with, and able to stand up to, Glomgold. Scrooge suggested Rockerduck sell all rights, shares, and deeds to Scrooge’s old companies to the Pasha of Pushbak.

The next day, Rockerduck prepared a contract of sale and sold it all to the Pasha. He also signed a confidentiality agreement prepared by the Pasha’s grand vizier.

Except that it wasn’t the Pasha of Pushbak. It was Jubal Pomp, a con artist who had once posed as the Pasha of Pushbak to try to swindle Scrooge. Now he was working with Scrooge, who was disguised as the “Pasha’s’ grand vizier to fool Rockerduck.

The next day, Scrooge showed up to lay claim to his newly-restored property. Naturally Glomgold doubted him, until Scrooge showed him a transference agreement signed by Rockerduck returning “everything back to me.” Then Scrooge showed Glomgold that the Beagle Boys, whom Glomgold had tried to have killed earlier in the story, were still alive (Scrooge and Donald having saved them) and were willing to go public about all the crimes Glomgold committed in his anti-Scrooge plan. Scrooge promised not to press charges, if Glomgold sold him back “everything you stole” for one dollar. Glomgold agreed.

And so, victorious once more, Scrooge got…

Nothing actually.

Scrooge’s whole plan was predicated on his getting title to his property back when Rockerduck sold his shares of Scrooge’s property to the Pasha of Pushbak. Unfortunately, he didn’t get title to anything from that transaction.

Don’t tell me, sure he did, right there on pages 14, 15, and 16 of the story. I know what’s in the story. But I also know what’s in the law books. And I tell you with confidence, Scrooge didn’t get quack spit from that Pasha of Pushbak transaction.

Rockerduck prepared his agreement transferring his share of the property to the Pasha of Pushbak. I doubt very much that when he prepared this document Rockerduck mistakenly inserted Scrooge McDuck’s name for that of the Pasha. Rockerduck may be an idiot, but he has too much ego to be that id-iotic. It stands to reason, therefore, that the contract Rockerduck drafted sold Scrooge’s former property to the Pasha and didn’t sell anything back to Scrooge. So what was the transfer document that Scrooge showed Glomgold.

It was exactly what Scrooge said it was. It was a document that transferred everything back to Scrooge. And it was signed by Rockerduck. But it wasn’t the one Rockerduck prepared. It was one Scrooge prepared.

It was the confidentially agreement that the Pasha had Rockerduck sign, which wasn’t actually a confidentially agreement but a contract that transferred everything back to Scrooge. Apparently Rockerduck got into some bad habits by signing his iTunes without reading them, and signed this “confidentiality agreement” without reading it. Scrooge even crowed that “Rockerduck doesn’t even know what he signed.” See, I told you Rockerduck was an idiot.

But the “confidentiality agreement” didn’t transfer anything, because it wasn’t legally enforceable. Rockerduck signed it, because he was told it was a confidentiality agreement. He didn’t know it was a transfer of property document, because Scrooge lied about what it was. That was fraud in the inducement. As Rockerduck didn’t sign what he thought he was signing, there was no meeting of the minds between him and Scrooge. The transfer agreement was null and void and Rockerduck still owned everything he was tricked into transferring to Scrooge.

Scrooge can’t even say that Rockerduck transferred his property to the Pasha of Pushbak under the contract that Rockerduck prepared and that the Pasha then transferred that property to Scrooge. The contract between Rockerduck and the Pasha was just as unenforceable as the “confidentiality agreement” was for the same reason. Fraud in the inducement. Rockerduck thought he was selling something to the Pasha. He wasn’t. He was selling it to a con man disguised as the Pasha. There was no meeting of the minds between Rockerduck and the Pasha, because there was no Pasha.

Of course, I don’t think there could have been a meeting of the minds between Scrooge and Rockerduck under any circumstances. If Rockerduck was stupid enough to fall for Scrooge’s ridiculous scheme, he didn’t have much of a mind to begin with.