Introduction A contract is a promise that the law will enforce. In situations where a promise is breached, the law provides remedies. A contract is created when a promise that is made by a party creates a duty. Contracts all contain common elements of Offer, Acceptance, and Consideration, and may have two more parties known as promisors, promises, or beneficiaries. For a contract to be enforceable it must be made by competent parties. For example, if a contract is entered into where one party is a minor, not mentally competent, or insane, even if the other person believes it to be an enforceable contract, it will likely be found to be invalid in court. Contracts are principally governed by statutory and common law at the state level. The …show more content…
The statute of frauds requires that certain types of contracts must be written. The statute of frauds intended purpose is to prevent a party from being able to prove an agreement that is in reality nonexistent through fraud. While different jurisdictions vary in how the statute of frauds is incorporated into law, its principal characteristic is that no suit or action may be taken on a contract unless there is a written document that identifies the parties and describes all terms and conditions of the contract, that is signed by the party that is to be charged. Mutual Assent For a contract to be formed, there must be an agreement between both parties. Both parties must have a meeting of the minds, or a common intention on the contract terms and agree to the same bargain. This agreement is known as mutual assent. Other than exceptions that pertain to the sale of goods which are discussed below in Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code, if there are any terms that are not settled or if no settlement method is provided, then there is no agreement. If both parties intend on the agreement to be binding and concur on the terms, the agreement is binding, even if all of the details of the agreement are not definitely fixed. The Mailbox …show more content…
Liquidation damages are available when damages may be hard to foresee. They must be a fair estimate of what damages would be in the event of a breach. These damages are included in the contract and both parties must agree to them during negotiations. Nominal damages are awarded by a judge when an injured party does not actually incur a monetary loss, but the judge wishes to show that the non-breaching party was in the right. Typically nominal damages are awarded in tort cases that involve a breach of contract and are rarely awarded in contract cases due to the fact that most contract breaches involve some level of loss to one of the parties involved. Punitive damages are damages that punish a party that commits a breach with the intent of deterring that party from committing future contract breaches. Like nominal damages, they are not often awarded in contract cases and are much more common in tort cases. Reformation: An equitable remedy that is applied when a written agreement doesn’t correspond with the contract that was formed as a result of either fraud or a mutual mistake in the drafting of the agreement is known as
Legally enforceable "A contract is a legally enforceable promise or set of promises. In other words, when promises have the status of contract, the contracting party harmed by a breach of the contract is entitled to obtain legal remedies against the breaching party." (Scheffel, Evan, and Jane P. Mallor, 2010. Chapter 9, Page 321) The Lambert v. Barron case showed us an example of what happens when a contract does not contain all elements to become a legally enforceable contract. Mr. Barron did not accept the offer, Mr. Lambert made no promise to recover money from the disputed contracts owed to Mr. Barron, so there was no promise to perform.
If a breach of contract is both material and opportunistic, the injured promisee has a claim in restitution to the profit realized by the defaulting promisor as a result of the breach. Liability in restitution with disgorgement of profit is an alternative to liability for contract damages measured by injury to the promisee.
Damages sustained by the plaintiff (Plaintiff must prove up its actual damages. The court bases its determination of damages on the actual amount of damages plaintiff's has proven or any sum above that amount but not more than three times above the actual damage amount.)
The Small Claims Procedure The small claims procedure is regulated by RSA 503 in 1973. It is a simple, speedy, and informal method by which an individual appears before a judge of the district or municipal court, presents his or her claim, and explains why another person or business owes money to him or her. Small Claims Court can award up to $5000 in damages (larger claims can be heard, but the maximum that can be awarded is $5000). Although not required in Small Claims Court, any persons or businesses involved in the proceedings may be represented by a lawyer if they wish. Another aspect of a small claims proceeding is that a judge may ask to hear any evidence deemed relevant and proper, since the technical rules of evidence do not apply in a small claims proceeding.
Both passengers of the vehicle have currently filed suit against the company for compensatory damages. Compensatory damages are intended to provide relief to the affected individuals. The driver of the vehicle has suffered a back injury which prohibits him from participating in military training. This has directly resulted in his inability to deploy so he can sue the company for the money that he would have received had he deploye...
The primary purpose of the “Statute of Frauds” (SOF) is to protect the interests of parties once they are involved in litigating a contract dispute (Spagnola, 2008). The relevant statutes are reliant upon state jurisdictions to determine whether the contract falls under the SOF, and whether the writing of the contract satisfies the requirements of the statute of frauds (Spagnola, 2008). However, all contracts are not covered under the SOF. In essence, for a contract to be deemed as legal by definition of the SOF, there must be verification of the following requirements for formation of the contract, which are as follows: (1) There must be least two parties to the contract, (2) There must be a mutual agreement and acceptance on the price to pay for goods and services offered, (3) The subject matter or reason for entering the contract, must be clearly understood by all parties to the contract, (4) and there must be a stipulated time for performance of duties under the contractual obligations (Spagnola, 2008). Lastly, there are five categories of contracts that are covered under the SOF, which are as follows: (1) The transfer of real property interests, (2) Contracts that are not performable within one year, (3) Contracts in consideration of marriage, (4) Surtees and guarantees (answering to the debt of another), and (5) Uniform Commercial Code (U.C.C.) provisions regarding the sale of goods or services, legally valued over five hundred dollars ($500.00) (Spagnola, 2008).
are seemingly in the right and an agreement can not be met. Whatever the case
As mentioned earlier, there are certain requirements which must be met for a contract to be valid; requirements needed include agreement, consideration, contractual capacity and legality. For an agreement to be valid there must be an offer and acceptance present. In other words, there must be an intent known and understood for the contact to have an agreement. With that being said, there is no
The purpose of damages is to put the claimant party into the financial point they were in prior to entering the contract that caused the problem. It is a monetary sum set by the court to reimburse the claimant. Therefore the innocent party must show that they have suffered actual loss, if this can’t be proved then they will only be entitled to nominal damages. To award the claimant for damages, the court has to think about two things:
Where compensation takes the form of a monetary award, it adequately satisfies the plaintiff for any financial harm caused . For example...
The purpose of this paper is to make others aware of an epidemic that is sweeping our nation. Fraud has become a vast problem in the United States of America. It is a crime that can be defined as a false representation of a matter of fact—whether by words or by conduct, by false or misleading allegations, or by concealment of what should have been disclosed—that deceives and is intended to deceive another with the intent to commit a crime. Fraud is commonly referred to a number of offenses that involve dishonesty or “fraudulent acts”. In other words, the intent to deceive a person or entity by another for monetary or personal gain.
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.
Damages Damages in lawsuits are simply monetary awards that are paid to a person as compensation against
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,
One of the last remaining strongholds of classical contract law is the notion that contracts require offer and acceptance therefore, in order for a contract to become binding, offer, acceptance, consideration and intention to create legal relations must exist. However contracts are formed in different ways for each different circumstance. (Shawn Bayern, Offer and Acceptance in Modern Contract Law: A Needles Concept, 103 Cal. L. Rev. 67, 102 (2015)