A contract is defined by the My Law Dictionary as “an agreement between two or more persons which creates an obligation to do or not to do a particular thing. A legally enforceable agreement between two or more competent parties made either orally or in writing”. Announcements to the public related to the sale of merchandise at a specified price are not considered offers to enter into a binding contract. Rather, they are considered invitations to make a deal. http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/advertisements.html.
An advertisement can be considered a valid offer if it contains certain elements. Firstly, it is sufficiently definite in its terms (e.g. descriptions, quality, quantity, & price). In the ad the text book was described
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A unilateral contract is a “Type of contract in which only one of the contracting parties is under an enforceable obligation.” http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/unilateral-contract.html#ixzz3DxarW5e4. Jennifer the offeror posted an advertisement on the 5th January 2014 about the sale of her new Poole contract law text book. She advertised that it will be sold for $75 on a first come first serve basis and the offer remains open for two weeks. She gave her phone number and her dorm address as forms of contact in the advertisement. Adherent to the wording of the document Jennifer entered into a unilateral contract where she is under enforceable obligation to terms she set forth in the …show more content…
There are two categories within unilateral mistakes: mistakes relating to the terms of the contract and mistakes as to identity” http://www.e-lawresources.co.uk/Mistake.php. The type of unilateral mistake Jennifer has made is a mistake to the terms of the contract. The law makes a distinction between incorrect beliefs at the time of contracting - "mistake" and incorrect beliefs about events occurring after the agreement but before performance. Courts often distinguish between unilateral mistake and mutual mistake. A unilateral mistake is an incorrect belief of one party that is not shared by the other party. http://islandia.law.yale.edu/ayers/mutual.htm. When the mistake of one party, in the this case the offerer Jennifer, at the time a contract was made as to a basic assumption on which he made the contract has a material effect on the agreed exchange of performances that is adverse to him, the contract is voidable and she does not bear the risk of the mistake. (Taken from http://islandia.law.yale.edu/ayers/mutual.htm). As a result of this mistake the contract in this case being Jennifers advertisement, cannot be enforced thus it becomes void. See Hartog v Colin & Shields [1939] 3 All ER 566 where the court voided the contract where “The defendants (offerer) mistakenly offered a large quantity of hare skins at a certain price per pound whereas they meant to offer them at that price per piece. This meant that the
One such difference lies in the acceptance of an offer. Under the common law of contracts, an acceptance must objectively manifest intent to contract. Under the UCC, a contract for the sale of goods may be formed in any manner sufficient to show agreement, including conduct by both parties that recognizes the existence of a contract, even without an explicit expression of
Within the Social Contract Theory, living within a society requires us to have rules and laws. This gives people the groundwork for how people and governments cooperate. Individuals receive stability when they live in a social structure. This gives them security from other individuals that may want to do them wrong. In order for them to receive this protection, they have to give up some freedoms, such as being able to steal without receiving punishment. Individuals need to commit to helping make society secure, and happy.
In the Williams v. Walker-Thomas Furniture Co. case the contract should remain enforceable because the financial responsibility of the consumer should fall on the consumer alone. Williams should not have purchased more items than Williams could afford. The contract was not overly bias favoring Walker-Thomas Furniture Co., and a reasonable consumer would agree to the terms and conditions of the contract, therefore the contract was not unconscionable. The contract between Williams and Walker-Thomas Furniture should be enforceable, the defense of unconscionability is not applicable.
For instance, a bilateral contract is formed when both parties exchange a mutual promise to perform some action in the future and a unilateral contract is one party makes a promise to the other’s party performance is soon completed. Lastly, in the common law contract requires a spoken or written representation of the quantity, price, performance time, nature of work and the identity of an offer between two parties or one party offer to be part of a valid contract. Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) was drafted in “an attempt to unify state laws affecting commerce into a single code that all states could adopt to make interstate commerce easier and more efficient (Roger, S. (2012)). Seeing that it governs contracts between merchants and tangible objects (i.e. the sales of goods). The elements of Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) contract are the following: Offer: An invitation for another to enter into a contract, Acceptance: Acquiescence to enter into a contract under the terms of the offer (Roger, S. (2012)). In case, firm offers are made by merchants to either “buy or sell goods” and that merchant can be either “an offeror or offeree” depending upon who initiates the
In addition to, the advert requires people walking from Manchester to Birmingham thus a performance. As a result, this is a unilateral contract, which according to Jill pool contract textbook is ‘a contract where one party binds himself to perform a stated promise upon performance of a stated act by the promise’ . This highlights that anyone who performs the act will be rewarded by the yummy chocolate (defendant) thus a binding contract, Bowerman v Association of British Travel Agents Ltd (1996) . Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co (1893) is the most famous example of a unilateral contract. It was established that by Bowen LJ that ‘an offer can be made to the whole world’ and there is no requirement that the offeree communicated an intention to accept, since acceptance is through full performance . Therefore, it was the claimant’s choice to walk from Manchester to Birmingham, and once he sta...
A Theory of Justice is the magnum opus of 20th century social contract theorist and political philosopher, John Rawls. A bit of background into this work is that social contract theory had fallen out of favor with political scientists and philosophers since the last 18th century, with the success of the American Revolution and the apparent triumph of John Locke and Democracy. However, with the advent of modern globalization, the emergence of America as a superpower, but the growing concern of socio-economic disparity necessitated a revisiting of the social contract, what it means, how societies and governments were best constructed.
It is commonly accepted that an estoppel is a legal doctrine which prevents a person from negating or claiming a fact due to that person’s prior conduct. The doctrine of estoppel has been applied for years and different forms of estoppel have been established. For the purpose of this essay, I will predominantly concentrate on promissory estoppel in relation to the law of contracts. This essay will be approached by discussing the issues of pre-contractual liability, consideration, reliance and the doctrine as a cause of action or defence and a slight comparison of the standpoints that various jurisdictions hold towards these issues. These arguments would conclude the uncertainty of the doctrine and thus, the difficulty and issues that would be faced with the codification of the estoppel.
The basic purpose of UCTA 1977 is to restrict the extent to which liability in a contract can be excluded for breach of contract and negligence, largely by reference to a reasonableness requirement, but in some cases by a specific prohibition.
In the ever-changing world today, companies are continuing to innovate so they can maintain a competitive advantage. In order to keep their ideas secret, companies use legal documents called non-disclosure agreements or confidentiality agreements. Thousands of companies sign these contracts with other businesses and their own employees to ensure that current projects, innovative ideas, or new products are undisclosed from competitors. NDAs provide a level of protection and comfort when disclosing information to another party.
Unilateral – some offers are purely one sided, made without the offeror’s having any idea whether they will ever be taken up and accepted, and thereby be transformed into a contract. For example when an advertisement where a person is rewarding another one if he finds his pet (which was lost). In this case the person who is making such an offer is not sure whether this offer will be ever accepted.
This judgment given set criterion which is still been used in the modern court system and due to this case it was developed that an offer of contract can be unilateral and doesn’t have to be made to a specific party only. Also it was developed to that the acceptance of an offer does not require a notification and that once the concerned party purchases the product the contract is active then and there itself. And it was also established that purchase of an item is a fine example of consideration and therefore makes it a valid contract. (Smith, 2000).
The basic law of a contract is an agreement between two parties or more, to deliver a service or a product. And reach a consensus about the terms and conditions that is enforced by law and a contract can be only valid if it is lawful other than that there can’t be a contract. For a contract to exist the parties must have serious intentions, agreement, contractual capacity meaning a party must be able to carry a responsibility, lawful, possibility of performance and formalities. Any duress, false statements, undue influence or unconscionable dealings could make a contract unlawful and voidable.
A contract is an agreement between two parties in which one party agrees to perform some actions in return of some consideration. These promises are legally binding. The contract can be for exchange of goods, services, property and so on. A contract can be oral as well as written and also it can be part oral and part written but it is useful to have written contract otherwise issues can be created in future. But both the written as well as oral contract is legally enforceable. Also if there is a breach of contract, there are certain remedies for that which are discussed later in the assignment. There are certain elements which need to be present in a contract. These elements are discussed in the detail in the assignment. (Clarke,
From elementary to high school and even college students are compelled to attend school all around the world. In schools students not only learn general education but learn a lot about themselves. It is said that in the first twenty years of an individual’s life are the years that the individual finds out who they really are. An individual’s moral beliefs are one of the most personal and complex pieces of that individual. There are several great moral theories that could be taught in school, but to only choose one is very difficult. Some of the most known moral theories are Utilitarianism, Virtue Ethics, Kantianism and even Social Contract Theory. All of these theories were developed by some of the most incredible philosophers of all time.
A contract is generally considered to be an exchange of promises or an agreement between parties which in due course legally binds the parties; this can be enforced by the English Law. A contract is always, referred to the basic foundations of Contract Law, which refers to promises being kept amongst two parties. It is clear that all people make contracts nowadays and do not even consider for a moment that they are forming contracts; these can be formal or informal, oral or written.