BER 210 Exam Flashcards
What is a law?
-Rules to obey
-Enforced by the state
-Peremptory or regulatory
What is a right?
Legally protected interests enforceable against everyone
What are the different types of rights?
-Real rights
-Personal rights
-Intellectual Property Rights
-Personality Rights
What is a contract?
An agreement that creates an obligation/obligations between the parties involved in the agreement
What is an obligation?
It consists of a right and corresponding duty
What are the foundations of a contract?
- Freedom of contract
- Sanctity of contacts (pacta sunt servanda)
- Good faith (bona fides)
- Privity of contract
What are the requirements for a valid contract?
- Consensus
- Contractual capacity
- Legality/Lawfulness
- Possibility of performance
- Certainty
- Formalities
What is contractual capacity?
Refers to the competences to create rights and duties by concluding a contract w/ another person
Ppl w/o contractual capacity
-Mentally ill ppl
-Infants (under 7yrs)
-Ppl under the influence of ‘cohol/drugs
Ppl w/ limited contractual capacity
-Minors (7-18yrs)
-Married ppl
-Prodigals
-Insolvent ppl
Ppl w/ full contractual capacity
Everyone outside the above listed except criminals
What is breach of contract?
-When 1 (or both) parties fail to honour their contractual obligations
-When a party refuses/fails to perform as they agreed to
What are the forms of breaches of contracts?
- Delay by debtor (mora debitoris)
- Delay by creditor (mora creditoris)
- Positive malperformance
- Repudiation
- Performance rendered impossible/Prevention of performance
What is positive malperformance?
-When a debtor performs but poorly/incompletely/defectively
What’s repudiation?
-When (w/o lawful cause) a party claims they are no longer bound by the contract
What are remedies for breaches in contract?
- Special performance
- Cancellation
- Contractual damages
- Interdict
What is an interdict?
A court order preventing the wrongdoing party from breaching
What are contractual damages?
Innocent party can sue if financial loss is suffered
What is special performance?
When a court orders person in breach to do what they promised to do
Formalities for a contract
-The general rule of common law = no
formalities are required.
-Parties can however can have agreed upon formalities
-There are certain statutory requirements
>eg: contracts must be in writing, signed, or registered on the Deeds Registries system
-No formalities are necessary for the cancellation of a contract, or for the re-instatement of a cancelled contract, unless agreed upon by members
What is a contract of sale?
A contract which the seller undertakes to deliver the Merx to the buyer and the buyer in exchange agrees to pay the seller the purchase price.
Requirements (essentialia) for a valid COS
Essentialia of COS include
-Intention of seller is to sell and buyer to buy
-Reach consensus on the thing sold (merx)
-Reach consensus on purchase price
Describe the Merx (thing sold)
For valid Cos, Merx must be agreed on
-Merx must be definite and ascertainable
-Merx is definite if its mentioned by name in agreement
-No contract will come into being if Merx is illegal
Formalities for valid CoS
-General rule = No formalities required
-However, certain statutory formalities are required for valid contract of purchase and sale of immovable property
-Partners may also agree on certain formalities (signatures, witnesses etc)
-Formalities required by law, partners may not exclude, change or abandon
Important concepts for contract of sale of land
-Alienate
-Land
-Deed of alienation
Aim of formalities for CoS of land
-to prevent disputes regarding the contents of the contract
-to prevent ant uncertainties regarding contents of contract
-to prevent malpractices
What does the Alienation of Land Act 68 of 1981 state?
That the sale of immovable property be reduced to writing and signed by both parties or their agents
Formalities of CoS of land
-Contract must be written
-Contract must be signed
In the written part (of COS of land) what should be present
-Object to be sold must be clearly identified
-Purchase price must be clearly defined
-Parties must be clearly described
-Alteration of written contracts (must comply w/ formalities)
-Termination and re-instatement of written contract