[Dailydrool] question on breeder contracts

[Val Brewer]

 aloha, I have a question for those of you who are breeders and/or lawyers (and/ or just knowledgeable). I’ve just muddled through a rescue placement which ended in all parties being mad at me.
what we have in Hawaii that passes for rescue is a networking service. when someone needs to rehome a basset, they contact our website and we post contact information about the dog and how to reach  the person doing the rehoming.  Interested potential adopters contact the person wanting to rehome the dog. the person rehoming the dog interviews applicants and decides where the dog will go. If the dog is originating from a shelter, a no kill rescue that I volunteer for will pull and foster the dog and interview applicants for placement. It is an unusual year if more than one basset needs rehoming.  
there are two reputable breeders on Oahu. both have clients sign adoption contracts which specify that if a purchased puppy needs rehoming for any reason, the puppy will be returned to that breeder.
so, a couple of days ago, a person contacted me saying a friend had given them a hound to find a home for as the friend was going through a divorce and neither party wanted the dog any longer. the friend didn’t know         Where the dog (2 years old) had originated, but thought it had come from an Oahu breeder.  I posted the dog on the rescue site and there were a dozen applicants within an hour. and I also contacted both breeders in Oahu in case the dog was under a “return to breeder” contract. the friend trying to rehome the dog identified a great home for the dog before I heard back from the breeders.  here was my first mistake—I should have waited for the breeders’ responses before posting the dog. Live and learn. turns out there was a “ return to breeder” clause and the breeder wanted the dog returned to her.
the friend with the dog knew nothing about this, of course. After brokering some discussion on my part between all parties, the breeder gave her blessing to the new home found by the friend. all’s well that ends well? Right?
maybe. though I got a blistering email from the new home informing me of additional information “I should have known” and faulting me for my lack of knowledge of contracts as well.
 the friend with the dog who contacted me didn’t tell me that the divorcing couple had “gifted” the dog to her a full year before she was now trying to again place it.  (I had the impression we were talking days). The new adoptive owner said that the fact that the original owner (who had broken the contract) gifted the dog to someone else who was not a party to that contract and didn’t know about the contract. and that a year had passed without the original owner supporting the dog, basically invalidated the original contract.  so it was wrong of me to have contacted the breeder to check if there was a contract, thereby making the whole new transfer of ownership more complicated and painful than it needed to be.
  Now, no one is sueing  anyone, and the person the “friend” (one year non contracted owner) wanted to adopt the dog was able to do so. 
but I am left wondering in the future, what should I have done? Is there a time limit on return to breeder contracts? Are they invalidated if a dog changes hands to someone who didn’t sign the contract (surely that can’t be right or the contract wouldn’t make any sense in the first place).  
this one turned out,okay, I think, with only my eardrums a little singed. but a next one might not. Thoughts would be appreciated. ValBrewer

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