Written Contract Case Study

Question 1
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

In an attempt to make peace with all this, Mr. Brown buys both ladies their first round of drinks and they all sit and start chatting. The contract comes up and Beyoncé mentions an interest in some, if not all of the knives in question. Beyoncé then writes on the cocktail napkin that she agrees to pay Mr. Brown the remaining $2500 that is owed by Rhianna by next Friday. Mr. Brown and Beyoncé both sign it, but not Rhianna. Now the major issue at hand is that there is still the original contract between Brown and Rhianna; that’s still in play. But then Rhianna tried assigning duties to Beyoncé, who was visibly intoxicated and clearly not in a competent state of mind. But then there’s this next agreement, on the napkin, but not all parties sign. Did Rhianna agree to

I still think that Brown would win in this with scenario because, yes, he got the first $2500 from Rhianna, but nothing says that Rhianna agreed to the contract written on the napkin where Beyoncé stated that she’d pay the remaining $2500 owed by Rhianna for some if not all of the remaining knives. Because they were of sound mind it makes the contract legally binding because both parties agreed to it. But because there is still a contract in play; Brown is essentially entering into another contract with a different party for the same the same item. But if Rhianna had agreed to this then it in turn puts the remaining liability on Beyoncé because she, this time, knowingly entered upon an agreement and didn’t follow