Essential of Simple Valid Contract - Assignment Example

Essential of Simple Valid Contract A valid contract is one that can be enforced in the law court. Four elements must be present for a contract to be valid i.e. agreement, considerations, competent parties and legal purpose (intention). For an agreement to be legally binding and end up in the law courts, a valid contract must have elements of intention and consideration for it to be enforced in law courts. Intention is legally defined as the willingness of all parties (parties involved in the transaction or agreement) to be legally bound by an agreement. In simpler terms, it is just creation of the legal relationship in the agreement for any eventualities in the course of that agreement (Blum, 2007, p. 47). The element of intention is very necessary and essential of any contract to be valid. For the legality of the intention to hold then it may be expressly stated either by writing or verbally or implied that is by the conduct of the parties. For the scenario of expressly stated contract then the parties include their intention to resolve their disagreement in court and important to mention the name of the court must be included. Court may also determine if the element of intention by the conducts of the parties that are consistent with the intention even if the intention was not specifically mentioned in the agreement (James & Field, 2013, p. 102). The following considerations are put in place, to determine by law courts if the parties involved in the agreement (without a clearly or specifically stated intention) implied an intention to be legally bound. First, the relationship of the parties is keenly observed, if friends or relatives or client and businessperson: second, the nature of the agreement in dispute: Thirdly, if any history of dealing between the parties exist and finally if either parties has gained benefit under the agreement (Emerson, 2009, pp. 80-91). Jack and Jill agreement The following are the facts involved in the dyad: Jack and Jill become close friends after working in the same company for one year. Jack has been a co-worker and has never been selling cars. Reason of offering to sell his car was because he currently having a company car. Jack wanted to sell his car at extremely fair price, reduced by half, to her friend but within a specified period (not beyond Friday) but yielded to the counter-offer of up to Sunday without any condition attached to that. Jack sold the car to Clarence on Sunday morning by more than thrice the price intended to be bought by Jill citing that the offer was too good to refuse. Finally, all this agreement is verbally expressed over the phone (Weinstein, 1995, pp. 43-77). An essential element of a valid contract for it to be legally enforced, it should have an element of consideration and intention i.e. the willingness of Jack and Jill to be legally bound to the agreement in case one of them renege the contract. From the aforementioned facts, there is no verbally expressed intention of the two to resolve the disagreement in court neither a name of any court mentioned resolving the reneged agreement (Blum, 2007, p. 53). In fact, contracts should be in writing, and signed by all the parties involved. More so Jack had offer to sell the car by Friday but Jill counter-offered to by proposing Sunday meaning rejection since Jack was not obliged to wait till Sunday Coming to consideration of if Jack and Jill implied a legally binding intention I shall bring following factors into force: The relationship of the duo, they are friends for one year. Therefore, by presumption it is not a contract because the agreement does not involve competent parties such as a businessperson with the client. Secondly, the nature of the agreement in dispute is also assessed. The agreement involved selling the car cheaply to Jill because of friendship. Jill had nothing to offer back in return so it was more of favor than a contract. Joanna vs Second Cousin Marie Facts: Aunt proposed Joanna for the house and its content inheritance upon her death. Marie was promised mirror by her aunt, aunt forgotten the promise. Marie bought the mirror at nominal sum of 50(it was worth 5000), Marie will assume the mirror is hers if she does not hear from Joanna in two weeks; she will also delay paying her husband for renovation of her house. Legal Issue To understand if Joanna is obligated to sell the mirror to her second cousin Marie, in regards to any of the proper contractual law and if there is some of reneged agreement between the duos in question. Firstly, the aunt the antiquated mirror of which she forgot until her death promised the second cousin. For any contract to be valid, four elements must be present that is the agreement, considerations, competent parties and legal purpose (intention). The parties involved were the diseased aunt and the second cousin to Joanna. This implies that the diseased aunt is incapacitated in delivering the promise and hence a contract between the two is not valid. The intention of resolving the reneged contract in court of law is absent and, therefore, the contract does not hold any more and hence it has lapsed (Best & Barner, 2007, p. 56). Secondly, the aunt is the rightful owner of the house and the content, including the mirror; of the house as per the will, left by the aunt hence is not obligated to release it at any cost. In addition, since the aunt had been offered the mirror free by the aunt and later bought the mirror at a nominal price offered by Joanna, it implies that she has given a counter-offer, which means the rejection of the first offer promised by the aunt hence the contract is invalid. Thirdly, the business of Joanna husband is in crisis because of delayed payment after renovation of her house in what is legally known as consequence losses. Joanna should seek the assistance of the court to push for a specific performance, which is being breached by her aunt, and, therefore, injunction should be enforced for her intended actions (Clarkson, et al., 2012, pp. 20-35). In addition, remedies for the damages should be paid. Finally, Joanna needs to know that the contract is a mutually agreed agreement. In the course of making an agreement that is legally binding, if any party uses undue influence such as ignorance (in our case Joanna seems ignorant of her rights) make the contract invalid. In addition, in case any party uses duress or force such as, if she does not answer in two weeks she will assume the mirror is hers; she will not pay the Peter her due payment for renovating her house, and other make a contract invalid JOHN COOKS MOTORS PO BOX 123342B REF No. A34234B 4th April 23, 2014 LYODS ADVOCATE & COMPANY P.O BOX 7654309C SYDNEY Dear: Sir RE: LEGAL ADVICE REGARDING BUSSINESS TRANSACTION WITH MY REGULAR CUSTOMER My names are John Cook. I have a business that is duly registered and dealing with repairing vehicles. The business has been in operation for a span of 20 years by now without mishap. In a day, I repair more than 5 vehicles and I have developed many customers who regularly come to my garage because of the quality of workmanship. I have decided to pen you this letter for legal advice regarding the business I transacted with one of my regular customer who we have been in business for the last five years. His name is Peter. The following are the facts that transpired between Peter, my regular client, and my business that may be useful for your useful legal advice and litigation on the event that the matters proceed to the law court: FACTS We have been in business with my client Peter’s family for five years. I have been servicing their cars now and then. On 15 January, Peter brought his car to my garage for mechanical damage. Then thieves took away the entertainment system valued at $ 1200 while the car was at my garage that evening. Then someone whom I dint identifies caused damage (worth $ 16000 to the very car while I had driven it to my friend.) For the last 5 years, I have been issuing receipt with the following inscription: “We regret that we cannot accept any responsibility for damage or loss caused to customers’ vehicles by fire, vandalism or otherwise howsoever caused” Peter had had been issued this receipt every time he visited my garage, which have Peters name, a description of car and the work carried out. On top of that, in my office there is the following notice on the wall: Customer is kindly invited to note that all vehicles are subject to the condition on our receipt forms, written in bold. LEGAL ISSUE Weather I am legally bound to pay the damages caused by the by the thieves and an unknown person who caused the damage on the following lines of contract law: Was it may duty or did I rather breech any element of negligence? Can my client claim that she was ignorant of the pre-existing receipt of which free me from the damages caused by the thief and the unidentified person who caused the damage to the car? If there are any remedies that, I have to incur to my client that emanating from the damages caused on the ground breach of specific performance on my side and the consequence losses. It is my humble request to give light on the legality of this rather complex scenario on the actions I intend to take and any other legal concern, which may arise from these circumstances. Yours sincerely John Cook References Best, A. & Barner, D. W., 2007. Basic tort law: cases, statutes, and problems. Austin: Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.. Blum, B. A., 2007. Contracts: examples & explanations. 2nd ed. Austin: Wolters Kluwer Law & Business. Clarkson, K. W., Miller, R. L., Cross, F. B. & Clarkson, K. W., 2012. Business law: text and cases : legal, ethical, global, and corporate environment. 2nd ed. Mason: South-Western Cengage Learning. Emerson, R. W., 2009. Business law.. 5th ed. Hauppauge, N.Y.: Barrons Educational Series. James, N. & Field, R., 2013. The new lawyer. 4th ed. Milton: John Wiley and Sons Australia. Weinstein, J. B., 1995. Individual justice in mass tort litigation: the effect of class actions, consolidations, and other multiparty devices. Evanston: Northwestern Univ. Press.. Read More