contract law Flashcards
what’s the definition of contract?
a contract is a legally binging agreement between to ore more people that is enforceable by law.
what’s are the elements of a contract?
-offer and acceptance
-consideration
-intention to contract
-capscity to contract
-consent to contract
-legality of form
-legality of purpose
what’s an offer?
give an exemple
an offer is made when one person asks to another person to enter into a deal.
to be a valid offer, all the terms of the deal must be clearly set out, completely and without any conditions attached.
you can do this by speaking it, writing it or by conduct.
eg. by putting the groceries into a trolley and bringing them to a checkout you are offering to buy the groceries
when it comes to end?
case of termination of an offer:
-an offer can be withdraw prior acceptance
-an offer ends if a specific deadline passes
-an offer also ends after a reasonable amount of time with no acceptance
what’s an acceptance?
give an exemple
acceptance means that the other perso agrees precisely to all the terms of the deal without any conditions.
they can accept by speaking, putting it in writing or by conduct .
the supermarket accepts your offer by scanning your groceries
what’s a consideration?
give an exemple
consideration is the payment that one party to the contract gives to the other in return for the promise made in the “agreement.
to the “agreement” to become a contract that must be consideration
the consideration must be REAL and VALUABLE.
it must have value that can be objectively determined, eg money, lobour.
the agreement cannot be for free, both parties should get something of value.
example:in a supermarket, the customer get the groceries wile supermarket gets the money
what’s an intention to contract?
give an exemple
this mens that both the parties mean to be in a legally ringing contract. they fully understand that it is a legally binding contract at the time making the agreement.
agreement between family member (for non business transaction) are not contracts.
eg if Paul says he will wash his mothers car and then doesn’t she cannot sue him because there is no intention, so no contract.
what’s a consent to contract
give an exemple
for a contract to be valide, both parties must give their real permission to enter into it.
there cannot be any mistakes or lining, and they cannot be forced to into agreeing to a deal against their will.
eg:the former chairperson of a company threatened the CEO that would have him killed if he did not buy his shares.
the CEO bought the shares but later tried to get out of the contract.
the judge let him out of the contract because he had been forced into it against his will.
what’s a capacity to contract?
give an exemple
capacity to contract means that the person has the legal right and power to make a legally binding contract. all people and businesses have the right to make a legally binding contract except certain circumstances.
-people under the age of 18
-people who are mentally incapacitated because they are drunk, on drugs or insane
-diplomats, who cannot make contracts because they have diplomatic immunity
-company directors when they do something beyond their authority as started in the memorandum of association (when they do this is known as ultra vires)
what’s a legality of form?
give an exemple
this means that certain contracts must be drawn up in a certain way if they are to be legal contracts.
when buying an house or hire purchase are example of contracts that have to be written
what’s a legality of purpose?
give an exemple
this means that legally binding contract can only be for legal transactions.
eg: a judge will not award compensation to a bank robber whose get away driver did not turn up as agreed
how can a contract end?
a contract can come to an end in a number of ways:
-performance
-agreement
-frustration
-beach of contract
what performance means?
give an exemple
it’s a way a contract might end.
when both sides carry out their duties under the contract exactly as originally agreed, the contract is ended
eg:cip agreed to sell his car for 5000 $ when chop gives him the money and cip gives the car to chop the transaction is ended.
what agreement means?
give an exemple
a contract is ended when all the parties involved in it voluntarily decide to end it.
eg: a professional footballer might end his one year contract with a club
to sign a new 5 year contract with the club. Both parties are happy to end the
first contract in order to sign a new one.
what frustration means?
give an exemple
A contract comes to an end if some unforeseen event (such as the death or
bankruptcy of one of the parties) which makes it impossible to carry out the
contract.
