Contract Law and How It Applies to Real Life - Essay Example

? Law of contract al Affiliation: Introduction A contract refers to an agreement that has a lawful object entered into through voluntary means by a party or more than two for that matter. In this case, the parties involve usually intend to create some legal requirements between them. In a contract there are normally four elements which are: Offer: This is an expression by the individual giving the offer, showing the will to abide by the set terms and conditions, with the objective that if the offer is acknowledged he or she will be bound to the contract. Acceptance: This refers to an expression of unconditional agreement that all the terms and conditions in the offer will be adhered to. The acceptance in this case can either be written or oral form and it should reflect the original offer made. Competent persons: In a contract the parties involved should have knowledgeable individuals who are able to handle every issue and agree to all terms and conditions having understood what all of them mean and what they require. Mutuality of obligation: This is a term used in a contract meaning that each individual involved should be ready to show commitment since it is an agreement and the duties assigned if any, should be performed as expected. These are the four main elements of a contract. Law on the other hand, refers to a system of guidelines and rules enforced in social institutions, meant to govern behaviour. Laws are usually made by legislatures in which their formation can be influenced by rights defined therein and constitution which can be written or unwritten. This essay seeks to give more information on contract law and how it applies to real life. Contract law therefore, refers to the set of terms and conditions that ought to be followed b individuals who have participated in making an agreement. Contract is based on the principle that agreements ought to be kept. Contract law is classified as habitual contract under the civil law systems. It is also known to be part of general obligation law along with unjust enrichment, tort and restitution. In this case, the essay will discuss on a condition where the contract law is applied. This essay seeks to make an accurate analysis of the problems raised by the case, identify the legal principles relevant to the case as well as the implication for the contract law and the outcome of the case. There are various sources of contract law which are: Common law Restatement Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) United Nations Convention on Contrasts for the international Sale of Goods (CISG) UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contrasts. Uniform Computer Transactions Act (UCITA) Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-Sign) The case here involves two main participants who are Alan and Dona. Alan is an individual who owns a restaurant that specializes in Italian food. He has recently secures a lucrative booking for a large wedding. One of the participants of the agreement is Donna who is in this case, the bride. She agrees to pay $ 30,000 for the event. This amount is enough to cater for everything to make certain that the event is successful. She goes ahead and pays $ 20,000 where it is agreed that the remaining $10,000 will be paid on the wedding day. This gives a clear impression that Donna as the bride is hiring Alan’s restaurant for the event. Charles turns out to be the chef in Alan’s restaurant. Sometime ago, he designed a beautiful Italian themed menu which will be used at the wedding. Alan is pleased with this menu and believes it will work best for the occasion. Alan goes ahead and tells Charles that he will offer him $50 for his effort. Alan goes right ahead and hires Charles Your Dream Builder to carry out some alteration including installing a fountain in the courtyard. Allan sees that the progress is slow and decides to offer an additional $ 1,000 for the progress to be sped up. It is agreed and the refurbishment is finished just at the right time. The wedding day comes and Donna has a wonderful day. However, she tells Alan that she can only afford to give him $ 5,000 rather than the agreed $ 10,000. Alan agrees to take the $ 5,000 in which some weeks later he discovers that Donna has won a large amount on the game of chance. According to the contract above, the agreement is between Donna and Alan where Donna decides to offer some money for Alan to allow her, have her wedding event in his restaurant. That is the contract sealed between the two individuals, where the money to be pad has been agreed and set for $ 30, 000. At this point, the agreement is met to the satisfaction of both participants without any problem. This gives a clear impression that this contract includes an implied-in-law since it is a covenant of good faith and fair deal for both parties. After settling a contract with Donna the bride, Alan goes ahead to make other agreements with Charles the chef and Charles Your Dream Builder. The problem here is that he has made three contracts without having them wrote down. This is an issue that may lead to disagreements later because he may not be able to have all the records of payments in mind. First he agrees to pay Charles $ 50 for his efforts then he offers to pay Charles Your Dream Builder an additional $ 1,000 for speeding up the refurbishment process. In this case, he is supposed to have some record so that when it comes to payment he may not have problems. Having more than one contract at a time without having it written down is risky and may lead to misunderstandings. The other problem is that he decides to give out cash having received half of the total amount he is supposed to be given. This shows that if at the end of it all if he does not receive the total amount then he will have gone at a loss. He is supposed to wait for the full payment to be made so that he can handle the other expenses. He is also not supposed to offer the refurbishment people more money for them to speed up the job. He is supposed to have it as a written contract so that any problem that arises such as the slow progress of refurbishment is handled without forcing him to offer an additional payment(Brownsword, 2009, 67). There should be an exact understanding and set rules that should be followed so that confusion cannot build up. Looking at the first incident where he promises Charles to give him $50 for his efforts. This is a simple contract since it is one that is made between two individuals who know each other well. At this point a problem may arise where if he fails to get full payment for the event; he may not fulfil his promise to Charles. This therefore, gives a clear impression that there are problems that may arise making it difficult for him to fulfil his promise. In this case, Alan is supposed to have in mind that he should avoid making promises when he is not sure about what may happen next. He should therefore learn how to let things happen first so that he can choose to offer rewards according to what he has without ruining his plans. In the example above, it is clear that he has to pay Charles the $ 50 because it is a promise and a promise is a debt. At the end it is clear that he does not get his full payment and if he fails to pay Charles what he promised then it will definitely be another problem created (McKendrick, 2011, 62). With such simple contracts it is best to wait for the completion of the task so that rewards may be given depending on what is available rather than making promises that cannot be fulfilled. Alan has already made the promise but at the end there is limited expectation in that, Donna decides to pay less that she ought to pay. At this point, revocation process can take place. The offer Alan made to Charles can be revocable since it is not agreement between them but a promise from one party. He should therefore communicate it to Charles that he is not able to fulfil his promise as h had stated before. Since it was not an agreement between the two, Charles has no right to feel like a contract has been broken. Alan should revoke the offer due to the limited expectation because he is not in a position to offer it as expected. He was ready to offer the $50 dollar after Donna brought in the remaining $ 10, 000 but all plans were ruined after half of the money was brought and Donna said that Alan was not going to get more. Looking at the second issue where he decides to offer the refurbishment crew an additional $ 1,000, he makes a mistake. A contract is a contract and when agreed the task has to be completed where the individuals taking part in the activity should do it making sure it is completed at the right time. This is because before the task was started, the two parties had agreed that a certain amount would be paid. That should be the agreement which should be keep to the end. Is the progress is slow it is the duty of the individual offering the payment who in this case is Alan to instruct them to speed up without having to add money. Since the agreement has already been made, the duty has to be done to completion because an agreement is not meant to be broken. The refurbishment group had originally accepted to complete the task having in mind that they are supposed to be paid a certain amount until when Alan decided to raise the amount. At this point, it is best for Alan to note something. A condition may occur which may force him to terminate the offer. Termination of an offer may occur under the following conditions: The death or at times insanity of the individual giving the offer. This may happen without the notice of the offeree and it will definitely make the offer to be terminated. The death or insanity of the individual being given the offer. In this case unless the offer can be revoked for instance in the case of opinion contract. Destruction or death of an individual who is of essential performance in the contract. Is such a thing happens then it means the offer cannot be carried on. Rejection of the offer by the referee. There are times when referees reject offers and cannot be reinstated by the attempted acceptance of the referee. This will basically mean that the offer has to be terminated. A counter-offer by the offered which basically means that the offer has been rejected. A revocation process taking place. If the offer expires. The last situation is where Donna comes in after the wedding and pays Alan a total of $ 5000. At this point the problem that manifests itself is that Alan is not able to support himself because when the contract was made it was only between him and Donna. There were no witnesses which means it is difficult for him to deny the little he is being given. Donna points out that Alan is not going to have more than what she has to offer. This means that it is upon Alan to decide whatever he receives the money or leaves it all to Donna. He ends up taking the money because he prefers to have the half to noting. He has no option and he is forced to accept everything as it is, being offered half of what was agreed. At this point there are various things that Alan should learn. Among them are: If the contract does not have to be written down there should some few people who are close to him that should stand as witnesses to the contract. If the contract is a bit official, then it should be put down on paper where both parties sign up and have their own copies so that in case of any inconveniences there is evidence (Beale, Bishop and Furmston, 2007, 29). If there are no witnesses and the contract I not written down then it can as well be recorded. This can also act as evidence. Generally it is best for Alan to note that for transaction that involve large amounts of money like this one, oral agreement cannot simply work especially if it Is one between himself and an individual who comes seeking for making contracts for the first time. For Alan it was the first time making agreements with Donna because he wanted a fine place to have her wedding event held. Since Alan has restaurant which is well known for its fast and effective services, she chooses to approach him and see whether they would make an agreement. She succeeded and the made an agreement which later on made Alan a bit confused because he what he expected never came true after all. His plans for giving Charles his chef $50 failed because he could not figure out how he would use the little he had to manage his restaurant after the wedding. It was a dilemma situation but he got to learn his lesson after making an agreement without any evidence. He could not stand in and say that they had agreed for $ 10, 000. This was not possible he had no solid evidence (Poole, 2012, 57) and no one would have believed him in front of the big crowd. To avoid shame he decided to accept the little he was given. This is one disadvantage of a contract law, the other party can decide to do something in which the other party cannot be defensive against. This usually occurs mostly where the participants are less than three. Where they are less and there are no witnesses or evidence it is hard to support oneself. For those contracts where the members involved are more, the others can act as witnesses making certain that justice is served. Conclusion Contract law is generally the set rules that should b followed when coming up with an agreement. This type of contract usually involves voluntary agreements where the parties involved come together and discuss on how to settle their agreement. This means that all parties involved have the right to share out their ideas until pacts that are comfortable for all the individuals involved are reached. In this case, it is clear that there is no party that comes up with their own rules and regulations. Every detail has to be clear for every individual and for them to come up with an agreement all the decisions made favour everybody. This is the reason why individuals who are involved in such a contract have to be knowledgeable enough. This is to enable them understand all the proceedings and make certain that before they make the final agreement they understand and agree to all the set terms and conditions. Agreements are usually important issues that should not be handled lightly. This means that individuals who are ready to take part in such contracts are serious. This is majorly because there are usually complicated contracts which involve big companies with high amounts of money. Such contracts are taken very seriously because if a mess is done then it may lead to dissolution of a big company. This will generally mean that great loss will be acquired and to recover will take quite some time. This gives a clear expression as to why when big companies want to decide on some issues it takes them some time before they make final decisions. This is another factor showing that contracts are important as they determine activities that are carried out in daily lives. Recommendation For a contract to be effective enough, there are some things that should be taken into consideration. First of all it must have all the features of a contract which are: Offer Acceptance Competent persons Mutuality of obligation These are the four main features that should be contained in a contract. Those who participate should always be ready to discuss and come to mutual agreement with others. Contracts that are complicated especially those that involve large amounts of money should not be oral. Such important documents have to be kept so that if any problem arises there is evidence which will ensure that the activities of the companies are not drawn back. The other thing is that to make certain that contracts are kept without problems so that when time comes for some information to be retrieved it is done without any problem, there has to be witnesses. Since a contract law involves majorly voluntary issues, other parties may decide to do what was not agreed which may bring about problems. It is also best to make certain that the most important issues are noted down and that the parties involved have their signatures on them to avoid misunderstandings in future. Those that cannot be written down and there are no witnesses, it is best that the important issues and agreements are recorded to make certain that if needed in future they are available. The recorded data should as well be kept safe to avoid loss of important data. Implementation of these steps will definitely make it easy for organisations that have contracts to carry out their undertakings effectively, making it possible for them to have everything scheduled to expected activities and that confusion is avoided. This is to make sure that those issues that lead to failure are done away with to enhance success and help improve the situation of the economy in the society at large. Bibliography Beale, H.G., Bishop W.D. and Furmston M.P. (2007). Contract – cases and materials. London: Butterworths. Brownsword, R. (2009). Smith & Thomas: A casebook on contract. London: Sweet & Maxwell. McKendrick, E. (2011). Contract law. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Poole, J. (2012). Casebook on contract law. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Read More