The Law Of Contract Case Study

1047 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: case study

The Law of Contract has traditionally been established according to offer and acceptance with the assumption that this facilitates party intentions and is legally binding. On assessment, contracts provide that occasionally the process driven nature of contractual agreements can have the tendency to overshadow party intentions. Despite this, the purpose of contract, in our view, is to create certainty which to some degree is dependent on the formalities required to legally acknowledge a contract. On consideration, the over reliance on offer and acceptance has created an environment where party intentions are overshadowed by the formality of a process driven mechanism. Consequently, this imposes requirements which do not apply to all circumstances. …show more content…

An example of this is the case of Byrne & Co. v Leon Van Tienhoven & Co. from 1880. The defendant sent the claimant an offer in the form of a written letter on the 1st of October, then subsequently sent a revocation of that offer on the 8th also through the post. The offer letter arrived on the 11th and was promptly accepted by telegram on the same day, then was again accepted by post on the 15th. It was not until the 20th that the revocation letter reached the claimant. The facts of the case show that at no point in the process did the parties agree on the terms of the contract, yet the court held that a contract had been formed. The reasoning behind this was a rule of contract that still exists today known as the postal acceptance rule, which states that when dealing with postal communications the contract is concluded as soon as the acceptance of the offer is posted. The postal acceptance rule, in addition to the fact that “an uncommunicated revocation is for all practical purposes and in point of law no revocation at all” (Lindley, J.) meant that from a legal perspective a contract had been formed. This is a clear example of contract law’s tendency to be process driven and illogical, as Van Tienhoven was bound to perform on an offer that he had, as far as he was aware, revoked before having even communicating the offer in the first

Show More
Related

  • Contract Law Case Study

    1012 Words  | 3 Pages

    Common law dictates that the acceptance must be a mirror image of the offer, regardless of what the difference may be. The Pride v Lewis case is an example of the mirror image rule in action. Pride owned a house which they listed for sale but found a renter in the meantime. Lewis made an offer on the house with a closing date of May 15th, and the Prides accepted but changed the closing date to June 1st and proceeded to evict their tenant and take the house off the market. When the Lewises never showed up to closing, the Prides relisted the house but were never able to find another tenant and ended up selling the house for $15,000 less than the Lewis’s had offered. The Prides sued the Lewises for breach of contract but lost due to the mirror image rule. The different closing date in the acceptance effectively rejected the Lewises offer and no contract was formed. The UCC is not as stringent on the acceptance, it utilizes a “battle of forms” as dictated in section 2-207 which checks for a substantive difference between the offer and the acceptance, such as price, goods ordered, delivery date, and other similar matters. It could also allow a term from the acceptance to be considered a valid part of the contract unless the offer expressly limited acceptance, the new terms would substantively alter the offer with differences such as price, or the offeror objects to the new terms within a reasonable time

    Read More

  • The Uniform Commercial Code In The UCC)

    823 Words  | 2 Pages

    However, the common law of contracts did not adequately address the specialized transactions that are routine in the sales of goods. Thus, while many of the principles of the common law of contracts are reflected in the UCC, there are important differences. One such difference lies in the acceptance of an offer. Under the common law of contracts, an acceptance must objectively manifest intent to contract.

    Read More

  • Bernard V. Alan Case Study

    2038 Words  | 5 Pages

    The case of Bernard, Charleen & Damien v. Alan depicts the obligations of an offeror and offeree, if the contract is permitted and if the sale of goods were delivered as per the terms stated in the initial offer or contract. There were no intention to create legal relations as this case was held between the context of social and domestic agreements amongst friends and family.

    Read More

  • Written Contract Case Study

    1186 Words  | 3 Pages

    Within in scenario A, Rhianna and Chris enter into a written contract in which Mr. Brown was to sell his knife collection for an agreed upon amount of $5,000 that was to be paid in 2 installments of $2500 dollars. The first payment was to be made when Rhianna picked up the knives from Mr. Brown and the second payment was to be made exactly one month later. The first legal issue at hand is if the written contract had a clause that stated whether or not an assignment could be made. Some contracts prohibit the move of assignment; others may require that the other party consent to this assignment. Because this isn’t stated, there is not way to prove whether or not this clause agrees. It gets tricky because Rhianna knowingly told Beyoncé

    Read More

  • John Rawls' Approach to Distributive Justice

    1244 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • State of Good Faith in English Contract Law

    2595 Words  | 6 Pages

    Having evaluated the current state of English contract law, mainly made up of piecemeal solutions, it can be seen that despite being satisfactory and doing its job, there still remain gaps within the law of contract where unfairness is not dealt with. Moreover, due to the ad hoc nature of those piecemeal solutions, the latter have often produced inconsistent justice and have manifested cases of unfairness. Hence, “a relatively small number of respected Justices have endeavored to draw attention to the fact that the application of a general principle might be useful and even necessary in English law.”

    Read More

  • Four Elements Of A Contract Case Study

    730 Words  | 2 Pages

    The case presented is that of Sam Stevens who resides in an apartment. He has been working on an alarm system that makes barking sounds to scare off intruders, and has made a verbal agreement with a chain store to ship them 1,000 units. He had verbally told his landlord, Quinn, about his new invention and Quinn wished him luck. However, he recently received an eviction notice for the violation of his lease due to the fact that his new invention was too loud and interrupting the covenant of quiet of enjoyment of the neighbors and for conducting business from his apartment unit.

    Read More

  • Misrepresentation and Duress in Contractual Transactions

    1456 Words  | 3 Pages

    Transactions play a big role in civil law. As million bargains are made daily in the world. So, people daily conclude bargains on the basis of which sell them goods, render services, perform works. Also it proceeds during all human life - from the birth to the death. To enter in a contract, parties have to give a consent to it. Unfortunately, not all bargains are concluded at the request of the parties, such bargains are illegal, because the parties (or party) did not give genuine or real assent. Such bargains are made because of mistakes, misrepresentations, duress and undue influence.

    Read More

  • Cross-Cultural Mediation

    2076 Words  | 5 Pages

    Negotiation Journal, 25(3), 307-325. Retrieved January 22, 2012, from ABI/INFORM Global. Document ID: 1823235871. Schencker, L. (2011). The 'Standard'.

    Read More

  • The English contract Offer and Acceptance

    1227 Words  | 3 Pages

    The English contract Offer and Acceptance General principles There are three basic essentials to the creation of a contract which will be recognised and enforced by the courts. These are: contractual intention, agreement and consideration. The Definition of an Offer. This is an expression of willingness to contract made with the intention (actual or apparent) that it shall become binding on the offeror as soon as the person to whom it is addressed accepts it. An offer can be made to one person or a group of persons, or to the world at large.

    Read More

  • Carill V Carbolic Smokeball Case Study

    1388 Words  | 3 Pages

    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).

    Read More

  • Essay On Formation Of A Contract

    709 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Case Study on Contract Law

    2381 Words  | 5 Pages

    The issue in this case is whether there is a legally binding contract between Roland and Bernie. The things that needs to be considered is whether there is an agreement between Roland and Bernie. If there is an offer and acceptance, then there is an existence of agreement. According to Section 2(a) of the Contract Act 1950, offer can be defines as when one person implies his/her willingness to another in order to acquire their consent. (Abdullah et al, 2011) The person who make the offer is known as ‘offeror’ or ‘promisor’. (Lee and Detta, 2009) An offer can be made in the method of orally, by conduct, writing or by the mixture of these forms. An offer must require an effective communication with offeree. The formation of contract when offeree accepted the proposal. (Dass, 2005)

    Read More

  • The Role of Consideration in the English Law of Contract

    2235 Words  | 5 Pages

    Based on common law and precedent, the English law of contract has been formulated and developed over a number of years with it’s primary purpose to provide a regulated framework within which individuals can contract freely. In order to ensure a contract is enforceable there are certain elements which must be satisfied, one of which is the doctrine of consideration. Lord Denning famously professed; “the doctrine of consideration is too firmly fixed to be overthrown by a side wind” . This is a crucial indication that consideration has long been regarded as the cardinal ‘badge of enforceability’ in the formulation and variation of contracts in English common law.

    Read More

  • Valid Contract Case Study

    796 Words  | 2 Pages

    A valid contract is an agreement including promises made between two or more parties with an intention of certain legal rights and legal responsibility that are enforceable. For there to be a contract – that must contain four essential elements- offer, acceptance, intention to create legal relations and consideration.

    Read More

More about The Law Of Contract Case Study

Open Document