Court Terms Law Assignment - Research Paper Example

Law Assignment Exercise 1: The Agreement: Acceptance According to the earlier court rules, any additional term that was not in the original agreement leads to non-acceptance. The court is able to detect that a counter offer was made. However, the modern court rules ignore the existence of any additional information in the offer, and do not change its decision for the acceptance of the offer. Additional grumbles are considered immaterial or unimportant. In the terms that are identical, the court will find a contract and ignore any additional terms and changes. Any response that is not identical to the acceptable contract leads to a decline of the offer as a result of a counteroffer (Jane et al. 56). Additional terms are very vital in the case of ancient laws but in the modern laws, any additional terms do not change the offer and the court’s decision on the contract. The guiding rule that determines the court’s decision is the fact that the terms are identical to each other. If the court finds contract, it does not include additional terms because this inclusion will certainly alter the identity of the terms. It only accommodates additional terms in a situation where it has not established a contract. However, if the acceptance was based on terms and conditions that were not in the original offer, then additional terms play a great role in the acceptance and can not be ignored. Exercise 2: Consent The party presenting the offer to the offeree can realize that the offeree did not have the intention of signing the contract, by verifying the consent of the offeree before allowing him or her to sign the form. At the same time, the offeror can test the offeree’s knowledge of the contents of the terms and conditions, by asking sample questions from the terms. The third way to test the offeree is by explaining the consequences of signing, and the implication of signing without consent. The seriousness of the terms will enable the offeree to be serious and eliminate all jokes when it comes to signing the consent. If the offeree insists on signing, the offeror provides enough time to the offeree to go through the clauses of the agreement before finally signing. The offeror can select the most critical clauses and expose them as matters of priority to the offeree before allowing him or her to sign. All actions must be before signing because after then, the signed terms are valid for critical transactions. In this case, the offeree will have no option other than to read the entire terms and conditions. Exercise 3: Consideration Agreement fails to get consideration if there is lack of consideration. At the same time, if there is an additional term that was not present from the onset, the rule of acceptance does not agree with the agreement in a case where A enforces a promise by making offers to B and B does not agree to the terms and conditions of the agreements. In this case, A promises to present the terms and conditions for amendment, and B confirms that he or she has read the terms and understood them before signing the agreement. It lacks consideration because there is no consent of the offeree. Exercise 4: Agreement The agreement that A and B entered into could certainly not be enforced, since it lacked consideration. This is because it lacked acceptance due to unclear terms and conditions. Nevertheless, according to the theory of consent, offeror A would succeed in enforcing the agreement after B has read and signed the consent. This theory requires the offeree B to prove the following: That he or she has read every section of the terms and conditions of the agreement That he or she is serious and is in his or her right conscious That he or she has understood the terms and conditions of the agreement That he or she is interested in the contract and has willingly accepted the terms and conditions. Exercise 5: Reality of Consent and Fraud Perpetration Parties to a binding contract can perpetrate frauds and forgeries through impersonation or use of false unwarranted documents. A good example is where A and B make an agreement in which A is the offeror and B is the offeree. A conceals the agreement from B and does the forgery of B’s signature, purporting to mean that B has consented to the contract. A can use the signed document to perpetrate false representation or even criminal representations. Another case is where the terms of the contract are written in a way that they are difficult to read. In such a case, it becomes difficult for the offeree to read all the contents to understand the implications. For example, A as the offeror can decide to write the extremely small font sizes that discourage the offeree from reading every detail. The offeror can also use complicated terminologies that the offeree cannot easily understand or interpret. The offeree thus signs the contract without clearly understanding, yet the signature falsely represents consent. Exercise 6: Misrepresentation A party to a contract can cause a misrepresentation to occur innocently, that is to say, without malicious intentions. One of such incidents is where one of the parties erroneously and inadvertently misspells the name or identification number. Apart from misspelling, there is a possibility of one party using a name with a close resemblance to the correct name. A good instance is a case where one of the parties to an agreement uses a name like “Global Associates Limited” instead of “Global Advocates Limited”. If Global Advocates commit a criminal act and are bound to face a criminal charge, the charge will be issued against the former, creating room for the latter to easily deny involvement and evade a sentence. Alternatively, if one word in the name is omitted either intentionally or otherwise, it leads to a misrepresentation of the party. For example, if Global Advocates Limited is written as Global Limited, it ceases to represent the genuine company. Another way of misrepresentation is by using wrong titles for the parties. For example, there is a common misrepresentation of Professor Tom as Mr. Tom. Professor Tom can easily deny consent to such a contract despite having signed consent to it. Exercise 7: Similarities and Differences Similarity The similarity between frauds, misrepresentation and mistake is that all of them cause conflicts and disagreement among parties to contracts. They lead to erroneous transactions and probably fraudulent activities. Another similarity is that all of them use false information. Differences Mistakes are literally unintended actions. They can be corrected and avoided if detected on time. However, frauds are committed intentionally and with malicious intents. The perpetrator uses tricky means of perusing his or her objectives by concealing errors and misrepresentations. Misrepresentation falls in the middle, since it can either be intentional or fraudulent. Exercise 8: Reasons for Disclosure A party would be required to provide certain information however personal they may be. First, if the information has an effect on the contract, the party is bound to disclose the information. For example, an individual who is acquiring life insurance policy has to disclose his or her health history since it will assist in the risk assessment for critical decision making before the insurance company finally issues the policy. The second reason is where there is a confirmatory regulation guiding the contract and demands disclosure of such information. A good example is the declaration of bank statements where investigation or audit is being conducted. The third reason is where there is an evidence of misrepresentation. For example, if a married person is represented as single, then there is need for the person to disclose such information by presenting evidences such as a marriage certificate. Exercise 9: Capacity to Contract Contracts between a minor and an adult can sometimes support the defense of the minor as being unable to avoid the contract. A good example is where the adult adopts the minor and later on decides to engage the minor in sexual abuse. The minor will be considered innocent in such a case, since he or she could simply not avoid the contract, perhaps because of intimidation. Secondly, and still in the example of adoption, the adult can decide to engage the minor in illegal trade, including drug trafficking. This leads the judge to a verdict that the minor was not in consent to the contract. Thirdly, if the minor is exposed to illicit practices such as erotic movies that influence his behaviors, the judge can defend the minor’s behaviors since the responsibility for protecting the child against the materials is the adult. The forth example of such a contract is where the adult changes the name of the minor through an affidavit to deny his or her parenthood to the child. The judge can rule his judgment in favor of the minor based on the children protection laws and the right of a child to restitution. The fifth example is where a minor makes use of the family resources without the parent’s decision. The modern law supports a child’s right to restitution in such a case. Exercise 10  An exculpatory clause relieves one party to a contract from any liability. A good example is the contract between a driver and the parking lot management. The parking lot is not liable for the loss of the vehicle or its damage. This law is legal because the payment for the parking lot is not commensurate to the value of the vehicle to warrant compensation. It is illegal in the sense that the owner of the car has paid for the services and expects the car to be safe. Covenant for non-competition requires that one party to a contract does not engage in activities that compete with the contract (Jane et al. 56). For example, an employee should not get into a business that deals with the same business as the employer. It is illegal since it denies the employee the right to exercise the desired ambitions. It is legal because it protects the company from the threat of competition by the employee. An adhesion clause is a clause that is written by one party with a stronger bargaining power and signed by a party with weaker bargaining power, for example, between an employer and an employee. Unconscionable contract is a one sided contract that benefits one party more than the other. An example is where a company employs and exploits unskilled workers. It is illegal because it takes advantage of the difference in bargaining power to intimidate the weaker party. A can only recover for the services rendered at the mercy of B because should B fail to pay, then A cannot sue B since this will lead A into legal challenges with the state. Works Cited Jane, Mallor, James, Barnes, Thomas, Bowers, & Arlen Langvardt. Business law: the ethical, global and e-commerce environment. New York: Mcgraw-Hill, 2013. Print. Read More