Validity Of A Contract Essay

The report analyses the various elements that are necessary for the validity of a contract. These elements consists of offer and acceptance, consideration, intention to create legal relationship, capacities of parties to contract, certainty of meanings and the necessary legal formalities. Offer and acceptance are the main elements to which the confirmation of an agreement is brought upon. Consideration deals more with the benefits that the party will expect to get from the contractual deal. For a contractual deal to occur, the intention of both parties should be clear which evoke the element of certainty and intention to create legal relationships. Moreover certain requirements on behalf of the parties are also to be considered as not everyone has the capacity to enter a contract. If those elements are not present within a contract, it will be termed as being invalid. The elements for causing the invalidity of a contract comprise of misrepresentation, duress, undue influence, mistake and illegality.

Introduction

“The law of contract may be provisionally described as that branch of law which determines the circumstances in which a promise shall be legally binding on that person making it.”
This report brings out the elements which are enforceable by law to make a contract. Those elements are namely offer and acceptance, intention to create legal relationship, lawful consideration, capacity of parties to contract, certainty of meaning and necessary legal formalities. If these elements are not indulged into the contract, it will be termed as an invalid one. A valid contract is an agreement between two parties binding each other legally. It is also described as an agreement that is enforceable by law. It exists many b...

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...the opposite can be proven. In the case of Balfour v Balfour (1919), the husband went to work in Ceylon and agreed to pay his wife $30 per month. He didn’t pay the money and the wife sued him. It was held that there was no contract because the parties didn’t intend to create a legal relationship. In business and commercial agreements, which are more formal in nature; there exists an intention to create legal relations. Like in the case of Edwards’s v Skyways (1964), the plaintiff who was a pilot was made redundant by the defendant. He had been informed by his pilots’ association that he would be given an ex gratia payment. The defendant failed to pay to pilot sued. The defendant argued that use of the words ex gratia. The court held that this agreement related to business matters and was presumed to be binding and the defendants had failed to rebut this presumption.