Case Study: Jason Miao And Damien Case

Introduction
Jason Miao and Damien case is regarding contract, an agreement creating obligations enforceable by law between two or more people. Four elements must be present in order for a contract to be binding, the elements are as follows:
1) The legal capacity to enter into a contract – Mental capabilities and age requirements of the parties
2) Agreement – compromises of an offer and also an acceptance
3) An intention to create legal relations – the parties have a motive to get into a legally binding agreement (although this is often not specifically stated, it is usually implied).
4) Consideration – interchanging of benefits or something of equivalent by the parties
Jason Miao retired from his career and wants to rent his rooms to two

In August, Damien requested for an extra $5,000 of which Jason Miao agreed and will be paying together along with the initial amount of $30,000.

Upon completion of the work in September, Jason Miao got into financial difficulties as his investments has gone worthless and requested Damien to accept $20,000 in full settlement of his accounts. Damien agreed. After a few months, Damien finds out that Jason Miao had inherited a large sum of money from his sister’s estate whom had recently passed away. Damien now demands for the remaining $15,000 from Jason Miao which he refuses to pay.

a) Advice Jason Miao whether he can go back on his promise of paying the extra

When the act constituting the consideration is completely performed, the consideration is said to be executed.
Executory Consideration – An executory consideration is a promise made by one party in exchange for a promise made or an act done by the other. Where the consideration is a promise to be performed in the future, it is executory. A promise is an executory consideration that something will be done in the future.
Past Consideration – Refers to an act performed prior to, and to that extent independent of, the promises being exchanged. In other words, the action that was performed was not done in contemplation of, or in response to, a promise given. Consequently, the general rule is that past consideration is not valid consideration.
In this case, the offeror (Jason Miao) offered the offeree (Damien) to construct a swimming pool by September at $30,000. As the payment is only payable at the completion of the work, it is executory