Law of contract

Elements of a Contract Student’s Name: Institutional Affiliation: Question one A legal, valid and therefore enforceable contract should contain elements of an offer, a subsequent acceptance, intention to enter in to a legal agreement, consideration, and consent by all the contracting parties. Formation of a valid contract requires a common understanding of the terms of the agreement between the two contracting parties, which is facilitated through an offer and acceptance. Fried, C. (2015). Contract as promise: A theory of contractual obligation. Oxford University Press, USA. The party offering the deal is referred to as the offeror while the party accepting party is the offeree. An offer is a statement of the offeror's willingness to be bound in a legal agreement should certain conditions be met. An offer leading to a contract formation can be a detailed written statement or a simple verbal statement. If the offeree aggress with the terms of an offer, it is considered acceptable, however, if the offeree proposes an adjustment of the proposal, it is regarded as a counteroffer, which is automatically a rejection of the original offer, therefore, termination of a contract. Raskin, M. (2016). The law and legality of smart contracts. Additionally, if an offer specifies a particular mode of acceptance, only an acceptance communicated via that method will be valid. In the current case, Sarah and Jane did not present a clear offer neither did they specify the mode of acceptance to Fen. However there exist some form of contract referred to as unilateral contracts that don’t entail an offer and acceptance. These arrangements rare, and they involve a situation where only one party in the agreement is making a promise to deliver or showing intention to provide through a commitment towards a particular desired direction, but there is no promise of anything from the other party. Kadam, S. V. (2017). Unilateral substitutability implies substitutable completability in many-to-one matching with contracts. Games and Economic Behavior, 102, 56-68. The same party proposes consideration without response from the other party. Such a contract is deemed valid even if there is no communication of acceptance from the accepting party because it is not a requirement. Consequently, when the offeree delivers the promised services, the offeror is expected to pay a specific consideration as requested by the offeree because a contract exists. In the current case, it can be argued that an unilateral contract exists. By inviting Fen to discuss the issues facing their business, Sarah and Jane made Fen aware of an opportunity after which she presented a proposal, which can be considered an offer in this case, and later presented the expected consideration. Fen showed commitment towards the project by sending an initial plan of low-cost solutions, which both Sarah and Jane embraced and implemented right away. Therefore, even all the communication came from one party, the contract is legally binding thus Fen is entitled to the consideration. There exists a rare class of contracts referred to as implied contracts. They are valid if the circumstances surrounding the actions of both involved parties suggest they have reached an agreement although not through a verbal or written communication. Despite it not being neither spoken nor written, it is a legal contract, often referred to as a fictional contract and is therefore enforceable in a court of law. The implied contract may be implied in fact or implied in law contract. Implied-in-fact agreements are based on the circumstances of the situation of both parties. That is if the actions of both parties suggest that they have agreed to some obligation, then the law will conclude there exists an implied-in-fact contract. Implied-in-law-contracts are enforced when circumstances dictate that, without the courts stepping in to enforce the contract, one party would be unfairly enriched by another’s behavior. Therefore, one party is entitled to receive payment for the services he or she provided, even if the service receiver never any intention of entering into a contract. It aims at preventing one party from unjust enrichment through the action of another party without compensating the party. Austen-Baker, R. (2017). Implied terms in English contract law. Edward Elgar Publishing. In the current scenario, although there existed no contract, the actions of the parties such as the offeror inviting Fen to discuss their current problem, Fen delivering solutions within a month, the offeror accepting the proposals and implementing them implied the existence of a contract. Secondly since Fen's interventions provided a remedy to the offeror’s problems, and it would be considered unjust enrichment if the offeror doesn’t compensate the offeree. Therefore, Fen is entitled to consideration. Sarah and Jane could argue that there never existed an offer, which is crucial for a legally binding contract; instead, they just conducted an invitation to treat. An invitation to treat refers to the preliminary discussion before an offer is formally made. In this case, Sarah and Jane invited Fen to discuss how to improve the acoustics and minimize the noise pollution from their pub, which in itself doesn’t qualify to be an offer. However, in cases where the following offer or type of contract formed after the invitation is dependent on the contents of the discussion conducted during an invitation to treat, it is legally binding. In this case, the subsequent actions of Fen, Sarah and Jane were determined by the initial discussion. Therefore, there exists a legally binding contract, and Fen is entitled to consideration. Additionally, despite the agreements made during the invitation to treat being verbal, they are legally enforceable because a verbal contract is valid. However, one of the legal provisions guiding consideration is that it must be bargained for Raskin, M. (2016). The law and legality of smart contracts. . This means that when one party presents a consideration, the other party will evaluate it and engage in a negotiation to ensure the consideration is of equal value to the services provided. Therefore, although Sarah and Jane are entitled to pay Fen the consideration, they are not mandated to pay the exact amount requested for, unless it equates to the value of services provided. Therefore both parties should engage in a negotiation about the fairest value to be paid to Fen. Additionally, consideration must pose an economic benefit, which is the case in the current scenario where Fen asked for money. Additionally, the absence of clear terms of offer and acceptance are not sufficient enough to disqualify certainty, completeness and legality of a contract. Presence of intention to enter in to contract by both parties can be used as a basis to determine certainty and completeness. Since the agreement in the current scenario contains no clear offer and acceptance, evidence of intention can be sought to establish whether the deal is legally binding. The act of Sarah and Jane inviting Fen to discuss their problems with prior knowledge that she possesses the skills to provide a solution their issues can be considered to be intent to enter a legal contract. Besides, the text messages exchanged between Fen, Sarah and Jane can be provided as evidence in a lawsuit to show presence of intent. Therefore, since evidence of intent is present in the current scenario, an agreement exists, and Sarah and Jane would be in breach if they fail to pay Fen. They can be sued for breach of contract. Question Two Any agreement added to a legal contract after the signing of the deal to modify its terms is referred to as a contract amendment or an addendum. .it leaves the rest of the agreement intact. For an addendum to be enforceable, both parties should fully understand the new terms and agree to them in writing. There also need to be an exchange of another promise to ensure the addendum has consideration and thus constitutes a valid contract Austen-Baker, R. (2017). Implied terms in English contract law. Edward Elgar Publishing.. The addendum should indicate the date of the amendment as well as signed by both contracting parties. Additionally, it should be written and clearly state the terms which are being added to the existing contract. It should state that the addendum and the current agreements supplement each other. Therefore the addition will supersede the current deal in case of a conflict. Thus, if the modified deal observes the above provisions, Fen should file a lawsuit to recover the 15 % increase in the contract cost. However, an addendum must comply with terms of the original contract in regards to whether the original agreement provides for or prohibits contract modification. Some deals offer specific circumstances under which they are modifiable. Others require an addendum to be in writing. In the current case, since the original contract was written, a valid amendment should be in writing as well. Therefore, if the addendum doesn’t violate any of the provisions of the original agreement, it will be enforceable; therefore Fen will recover her 15% pay. Although an addendum is an amendment of the original contract, it is considered as a contract on its own. This is primarily because it entails a new offer and further consideration. Therefore, the failure of Sarah and Jane to pay the 15 % pay increase can be considered a breach and Fen can sue for damages. She may decide to have the contract enforced on its terms, or may try to recover for any financial harm resulting from the breach. However, since fen, Sarah and Jane have a friendly relationship, it may be prudent for the parties to try to resolve the matter informally before resorting too legal actions. Informal approaches entail the use of mediators. The law of contract allows claims involving between 3 000 to 7500 dollars, to be handled in a small court. Singer, L. (2018). Settling disputes: Conflict resolution in business, families, and the legal system. Routledge. Fens claim is 3,000 dollars, therefore, falls in the above bracket.  References Austen-Baker, R. (2017). Implied terms in English contract law. Edward Elgar Publishing. Fried, C. (2015). Contract as promise: A theory of contractual obligation. Oxford University Press, USA. Kadam, S. V. (2017). Unilateral substitutability implies substitutable completability in many-to-one matching with contracts. Games and Economic Behavior, 102, 56-68. Raskin, M. (2016). The law and legality of smart contracts. Singer, L. (2018). Settling disputes: Conflict resolution in business, families, and the legal system. Routledge. ELEMENTS OF A CONTRACT 8 Running head: ELEMENTS OF A CONTRACT 1