Employers Liability to Pay Employees the Promised Consideration - Assignment Example

The case in the paper has to be decided on the basis of the law of contracts. A contract is brought into action when one party offer consideration to another party for the performance of a specific action and the other party accepts it. The consideration could be “some right, interest, profit or benefit offered by one party to another, or some forbearance, detriment, loss, or responsibility given, suffered or undertaken by the first party.” In the present case, Megan’s employer, the promisor, has offered as consideration the bonus amount of 100 pounds for the extra 1-hour work done by Megan every day during the 3 months.

Obviously, she accepted the offer. So a valid contract has been created. Since Megan has already put in that extra work, her part of the obligation in the contract has been fulfilled. Now it becomes legally binding on her employer to fulfill his obligation of paying her the promised bonus. If he fails to pay, it means he has breached the contract. He refused to pay the bonus, probably because he misunderstood the principle “past consideration is no consideration”. This law has its exceptions.

In the leading case, Casey’s Patents, Steward v Casey, it has been ruled that between an employer and an employee, if the performance of work carries an implication of a future promise, then such a promise, when it was afterward made, is binding on the promisor, the employer, even if the work was already completed. So Megan is entitled to claim her bonus of 100 pounds promised by her employer.